


TWD Telltale but YOUR choices will actually matter

by Anthony66



Category: The Walking Dead (TV), The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Choices picked by popular vote, Daemon as in human soul in animal form NOT demons, OCs picked by popular vote, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:21:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 66,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25597210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anthony66/pseuds/Anthony66
Summary: I found a story on my other favorite fan-fiction site FanFiction.net by a guy called Duncan.TDI. His story is essentially the TWD game but he's doing his best to give us more choices and to take choices like saving Shawn or cutting off Lee's arm and actually making it mean something. And the best part is that the people reading his story vote to decide where the story goes next.I saw that and thought 'huh I wonder if there's a story like that on Arciveofourown' I looked and when I didn't find one I decided that couldn't be allowed. So I'll add a story like that myself covering all four games and some of the time in between them.So here's how it's going to work when ever there's a big choice your be given options A, B, C, and so on. The time to vote for the choice you want will be about a day or two after the vote on the newest chapter then I'll count the votes and write the next chapter based on the most popular choice. And just to make sure I'm not just ripping off Duncan.TDI's story and just because I think it'll be interesting I'll be adding daemons and some OCs but you will have the option to vote on which and in some cases if any OCs are added to the core groups.*Currently accepting reader made OCs
Relationships: your choice - Relationship
Comments: 54
Kudos: 16





	1. (S.1 Ep.1) A New Day

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Walking Dead but your choices actually matter](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/658435) by Duncin.TDI. 



> the link to Duncan.TDI's story is just above. I highly suggest that you go and read his story as I think he's done a fantastic job. And information and rules on how to enter your OCs suggestions are at the end of the chapter.

"This means people are talking out loud"

_"This means a person and their daemon are speaking privately mind to mind"_

"This will be used for when someone is speaking through electronics like radios or walkie talkies"

Lee's POV

"Has the jury come to a decision?" Asked Judge Santos a fifty something Portuguese man with only the smallest amount of an accent and a great horned owl daemon perched the back of his chair.

The jury foreman a white man who looked average in just about every way the only part of him that stood out was the man's daemon which had settled as a very large and nearly neon colored tropical bird. The foreman stood up and said. "Yes we have your honor. We find the defendant guilty for the murder of state senator Tyson Comman. But we the jury also have a recommendation." Judge Santos nodded his head for the foreman to continue. The foreman and his daemon threw a quick glance down at him before returning their attention to the Judge. "We the jury believe that with the amount of evidence given about the actions of the defendant after his initial attack he should be charged with voluntary manslaughter instead of first degree murder and treated with leniency as his actions prove that it was a crime of passion brought on by the heat of the moment."

With a second nod from the Judge the foreman sat back down and the Judge looked back down at him and said. "Mr. Everett please stand up."

He looked down at his daemon Lunnesa (Loo-nes-a) an iberian wolf there was a mix of self pity and fear in her silver colored eyes as she looked up at him. But she sent waves of comfort and encouragement though their psychic link giving him the courage to stand and meet the Judge's eyes.

[ ](https://imgur.com/6maicOf)

(This is what Lunnesa looks like)

"Mr. Everett I have seen the worst kinds of criminals in my courtroom murderers, rapist, child molesters, serial killers, and many others just as bad, I have seen the absolute worst that humanity has to offer. So I know that you don't fall into the same category them, you reacted how any man would when finding their wife in bed with another man. In fact when you and your daemon calmed down it was you who called the police, you provided first aid for both the senator and his daemon in the attempt to save their lives, despite having ample time you didn't try to run instead you willingly surrendered to the police, and you have made no attempt to hide or deny what you have done. That along with the fact that you didn't lay a hand on your wife I believe proves the truth of your character and that you are a good man who lost himself to rage just long enough to make a mistake." The Judge said all of this with complete sincerity and for a moment he allowed himself to believe that he just might get a light sentence his hope was reinforced by the sense of hope he felt swell in Lunnesa who'd been depressingly pragmatic about the whole situation. But then the Judge heaved a heavy sigh and his eyes filled with sympathy. "Under other circumstances I would follow the juries recommendation and charge you with voluntary manslaughter and give you a light sentence with most of your time served being on probation. But Mr. Everett the man you killed was a United States State Senator and by federal law there is very little leniency I can show you. So with that in mind the prosecutions demand for the charge of first degree murder and the death penalty is denied instead the defendant will be charged with second degree murder and sentenced to 25-life in a minimum security facility with the first possibility for parole in fifteen years."

With that the Judge picked up his gavel and slammed it down. Any and all hope in him had shattered as the judge spoke but it was the sound of the gavel slamming with such finality that robbed him of all sense and left him standing there in numb shock. He didn't even notice the bailiff put hand cuffs on him and a muzzle on Lunnesa he probably would have stayed like that for at least a couple of hours but Lunnesa snapped him out of it. _"Well on the bright side we weren't given the death sentence."_ She'd said it through their bond so he heard her in his mind.

_"Maybe not."_ He thought back at her. _"But what we did get isn't much better."_

 _"Hey at least we were given the possibility for parole. And with that comes the possibility for early parole for good behavior."_ Lunnesa argued.

It wasn't much of a lifeline and they both knew the chances of parole early or otherwise were slim because of who they killed but it was better then nothing. Neither he nor Lunnesa resisted as they were lead out of the courthouse they ignored the reporters shouting questions and the bright lights of the cameras. They managed to keep their reactions neutral until he spotted his wife Sasha with her rattle snake daemon Randel wrapped around her neck in the crowd staring daggers at him.

_"That lying, two timing, back stabbing WHORE!"_ Lunnesa yelled inside his head letting loose a vicious (though muffle by the muzzle) snarl as she used their connection to see through his eyes since she was too short to see Sasha through the crowd herself. _"Look at that bitch glaring at you like **she's** the victim! Like this is all **our** fault when the only reason this ever happened is because she couldn't keep her fucking legs closed! Oh! I really wish you had let me bite her at least once while I had the chance!"_

Usually he reminded Lunnesa to keep her temper under control and she'd do the same for him on occasion so they usually kept each other pretty mellow. But this time he didn't even try to tell Lunessa to hold her temper because he honestly didn't see anything wrong with her reaction. And while he's not proud to admit it there was a small vindictive and petty part of him that agreed with her he shouldn't have stopped her when she wanted to sink her teeth into Sasha's leg. He met Sasha's glare with his own cold and hard glare refusing to be the one to look away and back down because in both his and Lunnesa's minds that would be the same as saying this all happened because of them. In the end they both broke off their staring contest when his brother in law Tyreese and his giant white furred bull mastiff daemon Sonia walked up next to Sasha. Tyreese simply crossed his arms and glared at his sister and while he didn't say anything Sonia did say something that made Sasha jerk back with a look of shocked hurt while Randel bared his fangs in an obviously angry hiss. When Sasha shot another glare over at him she quickly looked down and away and he was sure he saw a look of shame on her face for a split second before she stormed off.

[](https://imgur.com/z24Rkbd)(this is a bull mastiff the only differences is that Tyreese's daemon is white instead of brown and female. I only added this picture so people would realize just how big mastiffs are) 

Both he and Lunnesa felt nearly simultaneous flashes of vindication for their victory small though it was. They watch as Tyreese and Sonia pushed their way through the crowd and stopped so Tyreese could say something to a police officer a good twenty feet ahead of them, the officer glanced back at them then nodded to Tyreese. To their surprise when they got to where Tyreese and the officer were standing they were stopped and the officer told Tyreese. "Two minutes."

Tyreese nodded to the officer and said. "Alright thank you." Then Tyreese looked at him and hesitated for a split second before putting a hand on his shoulder and saying. "I'm sorry this happened man, I really am."

He shook his head. "You have nothing to be sorry for Tyreese." They both knew who it was that needed to apologize just like they both knew it would never happen and it wouldn't do any good even if it did.

"But we found out what Sasha was doing a week before you did if we had told you two then none of would have happened." Sonia said sadly her tail curving in slightly.

_"Tell her for me that none of this would have happened if Sasha knew the meaning of the word 'faithful'."_ Lunnesa requested unable to do it herself because of the muzzle.

He relaid the message and Tyreese grimaced but said-

\---

"Well I reckon you didn't do it then." A voice said catching his attention jarring him back to reality.

Only then did he realize that he'd been so wrapped up in the memory he'd lost track of everything around him. It took a few seconds for him to remember that he and Lunnesa were in the back of a squad car being driven the prison and that the trial had ended three days ago. Once he got that clear in his head he looked at the police officer who was driving them he was an older balding white man with a southern accent and his graying bloodhound daemon sitting in the passenger seat. He didn't catch what the officer said thankfully Lunnesa had been paying more attention then him and repeated it for him. He took a second think on it then asked. "Why do you say that?"

The officer looked at him through the rear view mirror and said. "Y'know, I've driven a buncha' fellas down to this prison. Lord knows how many. Usually is 'bout now I get the 'I didn't do it'."

"Every time?" He asked.

"Every time." The officer's daemon confirmed with a roll of her eyes her ascent matching the officer's.

There was a solid minute of silence in which he figured their conversation was already over. And he marveled slightly that give just how angry he and Lunnesa had been and just how quickly their anger had burned itself out and they more or less just accepted how things were.

When the Officer spoke again he said. "I followed your case a little bit, you being a Macon boy and all."

"Your from Macon then?" He asked.

"Born and raised." The officer's daemon said proudly.

Then the Officer added. "We came up to Atlanta to be big city cops in the seventies. Always wanted to work a murder case, like that senatorial mess you got yourselves mixed up in, with all due respect. Hell, the whole family used to be regulars at your folks' drugstore right in downtown. Still there?"

"Sure is." He answered with a small smile remembering the old place.

"Good." The officer's daemon said with a canine smile on her face. There was a long burst of reports over the police radio catching attention of the officer's daemon and a large number of police cruisers sped by heading towards the city.

While the officers daemon was paying close attention to the radio the officer himself didn't seem to be paying much if any attention to it so he asked. "Does any of the sound important to you?"

"All of it." The officer answered. "But that box never shuts up. Sit in this seat and pay too much attention and you'll drive yourself crazy."

"Don't let him lie to ya'." The Officer's daemon said looking back at him and Lunnesa. "That's just his excuse so he can ignore it and _I_ have ta' pay attention to it."

"Oh hush now." The officer said giving his daemon a playful push.

Lunnesa giggled in his head and said. _"You know I actually like them."_

 _"So do I."_ He thought back and was surprised that he meant it.

The officer apparently wanted to keep their conversation going too because he said. "I got a nephew up at UGA, you teach there long?"

"I was going on my sixth year." He answered.

"You meet your wife at Athens?" The officer asked.

"Isaiah!" The officer's daemon barked indignantly.

The officer ignored his daemon and asked. "You want to know how I see it?"

He saw the officer's daemon open her mouth and to speak but he answered before she could and simply said. "Sure."

He glared at the officer through the rear view mirror and the officer's daemon issued a low warning growl directly towards the officer, he could only imagine the lecture she was giving him through their bond because the officer hesitated then said. "Regardless, could be you just married the wrong woman."

He opened his mouth to tell the officer to go fuck himself but Lunnesa stopped him saying. _"Don't it's not his fault and you know it. besides we've thought the same thing a hundred times since it all happened."_ Knowing she was right but still not liking it he growled but kept silent.

There was another burst of chatter over the radio but this time the officer's daemon didn't even notice as she was too busy glaring at the man. And he was still fuming at the officers comment so he was only vaguely aware of more squad cars and a helicopter speeding towards Atlanta.

The officer obviously decided to try and smooth over the comment because he changed the subject. "I'm driving this man once, h-he was the worst one. He and his daemon wouldn't stop going on about how they didn't do it. He was an older fella. Big, soft eyes behind a pair of smart folk glasses, and his daemon was this little brown door mouse. They were just wailing back there, says it wasn't them. Crying and snotting all over, right where you're sitting." The officer was interrupted mid flow by a general call for all available officers to respond to a riot, instead of answering the officer turned off the radio and continued on talking. "Then before long the man starts kicking the back of the seat. li-like a fussy baby on a airplane. And I tell him he's gotta stop, that that's government property, and I'll be forced to zap him otherwise. So he stops, and having exhausted all his options, he start crying out for his mama. 'Mama, it's all a big mistake! It wasn't me!'."

He couldn't help but ask. "So did he do it?"

The officer's daemon gave a disgusted snort and looked out the passenger side window at the same time that the officer said. "Do it! They caught the fuckers red handed stabbing his wife and his daemon was clawing her daemons eyes out, just cutting them up as the boys came through the door! And they sat in my car screaming bloody murder how it wasn't them!" The officer's voice had been full of rage as he spoke then he sighed and in a calmer tone added. "I think they actually believed it themselves. It goes to show, people will up and go mad when they believe their life is over."

_"I guess we should be happy that, that doesn't apply to us."_ Lunnesa mutter, and he nodded his agreement.

The officer's daemon obviously said something to him because he winced slightly then looked over his shoulder right at him and said. "Oh I got another good one for ya. This one's a little bit less depressing and a bit more hilarious if I do say so my-"

"WATCH OUT!" He yelled just noticing what looked like a man in the middle of the road right in front of them. Both the officer and his daemon snapped their heads forward just as they slammed into the man sending the cruiser swerving uncontrollably through a guardrail then rolling down an embankment.

...

He woke up with a groan the first things he was aware of was that almost every piece of him aced but the worst was the pain shooting through his leg from a large pressure cut and the pain running through his ribs the next thing he was aware of was just how thirsty he was. He took a second to get his wits about him and looked around he couldn't see the officer or his daemon in the cruiser and the inside of the cruise was trashed everything having been thrown around during the crash. It was then that he realized that he could move his torso without causing the pain in his ribs to get worse, and that the pain in his rips felt almost like it was coming from very far away. He heart skipped a beat as he realized that, that meant the pain he felt in his ribs wasn't his pain. It was Lunnesa's!

He started looking around frantically for her he finally found her still muzzled laying on the floor of the cruiser. He reached down and put his hands (he's still handcuffed) on her shoulder and started shaking her shoulder gently. "Lunnesa, Lunnesa?"

Lunnesa let out a soft pained whimper, reluctantly opened one eye, and groaned inside his head. _"Stop shaking me. It's bad enough that you landed on me earlier and shaking me isn't helping."_

He was confused at first everything after they hit the guardrail was a blur the only thing that he could remember clearly was being thrown around the in side of the cruiser. But then Lunnesa sent him a memory through their bond it started with him seeing himself as he hit the roof of the cruiser then his body falling and sudden pain flaring to life in Lunnesa's ribs. A wave of guilt washed through him seeing that. _"I'm so sorry Lu."_ He said using the nickname he'd given her when they were younger but at her request that he rarely said it out loud since they graduated high school because she didn't want anyone outside their family calling her that.

_"_ _It's alright, it wasn't your fault."_ She said as she struggled to stand up. Once she was up she winced and looked around the cruiser before asking. _"Where are the officers?"_

 _"I don't know. I haven't..."_ He didn't finish his sentence because that was when he'd twisted around and looked out the window directly behind him. Sensing something was wrong Lunnesa used their bond to access his eyes to see what he saw. The officer was laying in an unnatural position and was completely still. If there was any question that the older man might just be unconscious like they'd been disappeared since the officer's daemon was no where to be seen and the streaks of blood on the ground around the officer. _"Oh Jesus."_ He thought and said a silent prayer for the man and his daemon.

_"We're both hurt we need to get out of here and get some help."_ Lunnesa said.

_"Your right."_ He agreed looking away from the dead officer he studied the cruiser again and that the window in front of him had several large cracks running through it and he was in the perfect position to get the leverage needed to kick the window out. It took four or five good hard kicks with his good leg to break the window he hissed as shards dug into his ankle and calf but thanks to his pants they were only scratches. He kept kicking knock away as much of the glass as he could so they wouldn't get cut up as they climb out. Once he was done he pulled himself out head first he ended up falling which didn't help his leg but he got back up rather quickly reach back in and as gently as he could he with his hands cuffed he picked Lunnesa up and pulled her out of the cruiser. Even then he felt more then a few waves of pain flash through her side.

He set Lunnesa down and looked around trying to figure out where they were all he saw was trees and the very steep incline of the embankment. He then looked up at the sky it was hard to judge from where he was but he'd guess that it was getting close to early afternoon and he'd seen the clock on the cruiser's dash a little bit before they crashed and it had been 12:17 pm. So that meant they couldn't have been unconscious for more then two or three hours.

_"No."_ Lunnesa said breaking his train of thought.

_"What do you mean 'no'."_ He asked thoroughly confused.

_"I mean that we haven't been out of it for only two or three hours, I'd guess we've been out for at least a day maybe a little more."_ She answered. _"I say that for two reasons we're both way to thirsty for it to have only been a couple of hours. And we both know it takes much longer then a couple of hours for a body to start smelling like_ _that."_ She nodded her head towards the dead officer.

Lunnesa had settled as a iberian wolf early on during their freshman year of high school as a result of that and because of their bond he was able to smell just as well as Lunnesa could if he accessed her sense of smell just like she could accesses and see through his eyes. He'd kept a permanent connection to her sense of smell since their sophomore year because of how useful it was for them both to have a sharp sense of smell but he usually dumbed it down to a minimum because it could be very distracting. But hearing Lunnesa say what she did he decided now was one of the times where had have to give his sense of smell his full attention. After all of these years using the sense of smell he got from Lunnesa it wasn't sensory overload anymore and he could separate different smells nearly as well as she could. So it didn't take him long to realize what she meant even from here a good thirty or forty feet away he could smell the distinct smell of rotting meat. It wasn't over powering like how road kill smelled after a couple of days baking in the Georgia heat but it was still obvious that the officer had been dead for a lot longer then a couple of hours. And that realization made his stomach drop out through his feet.

_"What?"_ Lunnesa asked.

_"There were other cars on the interstate when we crashed, there is no way nobody didn't see that and no way that nobody noticed when we didn't arrive at the prison."_ He said in growing horror. _"So if it's been a little more then a full day why hasn't anybody found us?"_

He saw Lunnesa's ears lay flat against her skull and her body stiffened as her head turned to look up the embankment her own thoughts in turmoil. She was like that for a few seconds then she narrowed her eyes and asked. _"What is that?"_ Then she trotted passed him and stopped right in front of one of the deep furrows the cruiser made as it rolled and slid down the embankment.

He limped after her staring at the embankment trying to see what she'd seen, he was about to ask her to point out what she'd seen to him when he spotted it. There in the recently torn up earth were obvious shoe prints and scuff marks like somebody had fallen over. They'd never been much into hunting like their grandfather and his daemon, and neither of them had any special training but it didn't take any of that to make sense of these tracks. There were too many of them to be from just one person and several of the scuffs and prints over lapped each other and thanks to their sense of smell they could smell at least five different scents although the rotting smell from the officer seemed to be masking the scents slightly as they all had a rotting smell to them. _"Those aren't from the officer."_ He didn't know why he said it he just felt it needed to be said then he turned and looked back at the officer's body and the cruiser. _"If people did come down here why'd they leave the officer's body or leave us in the back of the cruiser?"_

 _"Here's a better question. Why'd the officer have his shotgun out?"_ Lunnesa asked as the fur along her back stood up and she started scanning the trees around them for danger. _"We thought that the officer's shotgun was thrown out in the crash and he was injured in the crash and bled out as a result. But for arguments sake let's say that didn't happen and these people came down the embankment why'd he feel the need to draw his shotgun? How'd he lose that fight? And since there's no obvious sigh that said people climbed back up, where are they now?"_

He really didn't like the picture that she was painting his heart rate started to pick up as as he started scanning the trees with rising comprehension and fear. _"We need to get out of here."_ He said then started limping as quickly as he could towards the officer's body to get the keys to his cuffs and Lunnesa's muzzle. Lunnesa staid right next to him as he went and as the came around to the other side of the cruiser they saw the proof of their suspicions. They'd seen the shotgun on the ground from inside the cruiser but what they hadn't seen was the dozen or so spent shells laying in the grass and a box of spilled shells right next to the cruiser.

Lunnesa trotted past him again and went straight to the box of shells and said. _"These haven't been fired."_

 _"Good I get the feeling that we're going to need them."_ He said back as he limped over bent down and started stuffing the shells into his pockets a total of sixteen out of the box's original fifty. _"I'll come back for the shotgun I won't be able to load it while my hands are cuffed."_

Lunnesa nodded her head and they started walking towards the officers body again but when they got within five feet Lunnesa stopped in her tracks and actually took several steps back from the body. He could feel fear and uncertainly radiating from her and her thoughts were jumbled up so he could only make out that it was because of the officer's scent that she was acting like this. _"What's wrong?"_ He asked concerned. _"We've smelled worst I can think of a couple of times were we've come across a skunk that got turned into roadkill."_

 _"It's not that."_ Lunnesa said shaking her head taking another step back and tucking her tail between her legs. _"He smells... **wrong**."_

Seeing and feeling just how scared she was he again started paying more attention to his sense of smell and after a second he realized what she meant. He could smell the officers personal sent but it was slowly being over ridden by the smell of rotting meat that was to be expected. But mixed in with the smell of decay was a sent he couldn't really explain it was kind of a sticky, oily, and sickly sweet smell that set off all kinds of warning bells in his head and made his skin crawl. He didn't know what the smell was all he knew was that while he didn't want to know he still needed to get the keys from the officer. He swallowed hard and slowly moved towards the officer looking for any reason that he should turn and run.

When he was standing right next to the officer's body he hesitate a moment longer before quick as he could reached down and snatched up the keys off the officers belt. His first attempt to unlock his hand cuffs failed and he dropped the keys. Lunnesa curse him for being a klutz he wanted to tell her to come over here and do better if she thought she could. But he didn't instead he concentrated on working up the nerve to pick up the keys again which was hard since a large part of him was screaming for him to run. He grabbed them again and this time he succeeded in getting his cuffs unlocked and dropped them on the ground that's when he heard the officer moan. There was no way he could be alive could there? After all the man's daemon was gone and that only happened if they died. "Officer?" he asked hesitantly.

Then without the slightest movement or tightening of muscle to warn him the officer lunged towards him trying to grab his shirt. He stumbled back out of reach of the officer's fingers and fell over yelling. "JESUS!!" 

Without the slightest hesitation the officer started crawling towards him _reaching_ for him moaning, growling, and biting the air the whole time. He was barely aware of Lunnesa screaming his name inside his head as panic took complete control and he crawled backwards as quickly as he could out pacing the officer until his back was pressed against the side of the cruiser. Now that the officer wasn't laying flat he could see large holes in the man's chest and stomach there was no way he could be alive he looked and _smelled_ dead and yet he was _still_ _moving._ "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!!!" He yelled in pure and utter terror his sense of reality starting to quickly warp and break apart.

The only answer that he got was more growling and biting. He frantically started looking around in all directions for an escape rout whether and escape from the thing crawling towards him or just back to a reality where everything made sense again he wasn't sure but unfortunately he didn't see one. That was when he became aware of the feminine voice screaming in his head. _"LEE THE SHOTGUN!! THE SHOTGUN!!"_

Lunnesa's voice in his head cut through his panic and gave him some small amount of self control he looked first to his right then to his left and snatched up he shotgun. He pulled the pump action down to open the firing chamber he pulled a shell from his pocket and tried to feed the shell directly into the firing chamber but his hands were shaking so bad that he dropped the damn shell. Cursing himself he reached down for the shell his hand reached the shell at the same time the officer clamped his right hand down on his ankle and jerked his leg towards his mouth.

But before the officer could sink his teeth into his leg a brown and black blur slammed into the the officer's shoulder breaking his hold and knocking his sideways. Then with the single minded ferocity of a feral animal the officer forgot about Lee completely and changed targets lunging at Lunnesa. Lunnesa had flipped and rolled onto her side and while she was quick to scramble back up to her paws it wasn't fast enough because the officer grabbed a handful of fur on her left haunch. Between the officer pulling at her and her own struggling that handful of fur was quickly ripped off of her but not before he grabbed her front leg and Lunnesa truly started to panic.

Lunnesa's distraction had bought him enough time to load the shell into the shotgun and seeing this _thing_ grab his daemon -the literal physical manifestation of his soul- and hurt her. It filled him with the kind of rage that he had only felt once before and now just like then it erased all other emotions and helped him kill. He didn't hesitate to level the shotgun with the side of the officer's head and pull the trigger turning the man's head into a red pulpy mass.

There was a moment of silence where the only thing that happened was Lunnesa pulling herself free from the officers slack hand. Just as quickly as it came his rage abandoned him leaving him with nothing but fear and confusion about everything that was happening. He dropped the shotgun as Lunnesa came over and curled up against his chest shaking just as much as he was for a few seconds he held her to his chest both of them mentally embracing both of them trying gain even a small amount of comfort from the presence of the other.

They were like that for only a few second even though it felt much longer until he spotted movement at the edge of his vision he looked up and on top of a small hill he saw the silhouette of a person. His heart skipped a beat thinking at first that they were about to be attacked again but he quickly relaxed as he studied the figure for a second. Whoever they were he couldn't see them to clearly not through the fifty yards of brush between them and with them standing in the shadows cast by the trees. He did notice however the way the person was looking around had an almost jerky bird like quality to it and their head bobbed up and down slightly like someone standing up on their toes to get a better look as they looked around. But what finally convinced him that the figure was a normal person was when the figure's head suddenly snapped to one side and their body moved in the opposite direction at the same time exactly like someone that just heard a sound that scared them. Whatever had happened to the officer, whatever he had become he hadn't shown any fear and both his face and his eyes were completely devoid of all emotion the entire time.

He raised his arm and yelled. "Hey! Go get someone! There's... there's been a shooting!" He saw the figure turn towards him and look at him for a second then spin around and run away.

_"Oooh."_ Lunnesa half groaned and half cried whimpering and burying her head further into his chest. _"Now we're going to be charged as cop killers."_

Somehow he didn't think so if anything they'd only get charged for shooting a corpse and have to answer a few questions about that. Oddly he was more worried about getting the police to believe them and not lock them up in a mental ward, then again after what just happened some time in a mental ward might do them some good.

Then he and Lunnesa stiffened as they heard a now familiar spine chilling sound half way between a moan and a growl. He twister to look behind him and off to his left and Lunnesa lifted her head to look in the same direction and they both saw three more people... _NO_ three more of those _things_ stumbling out of the tree towards them. Two men and one woman none of them had daemons they all smelled of rot and that terrifying strange smell. But the worst were the missing pieces eyes, noses, ears, fingers, chunks from their limbs, torsos, and throats all looking like they'd been bitten off by human teeth. Hell the woman's entire lower jaw was missing and he could see her tongue hanging from the back of her throat like a great big grey worm.

Seeing those things got an instant reaction from them Lunnesa jumped off of him with a yelp of both surprise and fear while he jumped to his feet grabbing the shotgun. They both started running even with them being limited to as fast as his injured leg allowed they quickly left the first three creatures behind but there were dozens more slowly shambling towards them from all directions except straight in front of them, and all of them every single one of them had the impressions of human teeth torn into them. He was doing his best to look in every direction at once and watch and keep an eye on every single one of those creatures to make sure they weren't getting too close. The whole time he did that he was quickly loading shells into the shotgun it slightly surprised him that now that he wasn't being completely ruled by panic everything their grandfather drilled into him about guns and hunting during his school days was just clicking into place. "I never thought that I'd be thankful for all the times grandpa literally dragged us out to the woods and forced us into one of his hunting trips!" He half yelled out loud at Lunnesa as loaded the sixth and final shell into the firing chamber and slid the pump action forward.

_"You and me both."_ She said back in his head as she ran ahead a little and got on of the creatures in his way to chase her after her off to the side until he ran past then she dodged around a tree and ran back to his side. _"I'm also very thankful that these thing seem to be as dumb as a bag of rocks."_

Lunnesa did her best to sound confidant and smug but even her mental voice sounded strained from that short run. He could feel through their bond that her ribs were on fire and the muzzle was keeping her from opening her mouth enough to pant properly. And in all honesty his leg wasn't doing much better they weren't going to be able to run much farther, not with their injuries. So he was relieved when he saw the fence it had to be at least seven feet tall being 6'-2" he could climb it easily even with a bum leg and be child's pay to throw Lunnesa over it.

When they reached the fence he looked over his shoulder to see how close the creatures were, they were too close for comfort but not close enough that he didn't have the time to get them over the fence. First thing he did was throw the shotgun over, then he quickly and unceremoniously grabbed Lunnesa around the middle then heaved her over the fence like he was tossing a duffel bag earning him a long and loud string of curses in his head, finally he jumped got his arms and shoulder over the edge of the fence and pulled himself over just as he felt hands brush against his feet.

He hit the ground hard jarring his leg he grit his teeth and did his best to ignore the pain it cost as he grabbed the shotgun and got back to his feet. He kept the shotgun raised and ready as he and Lunnesa backed away from the fence as at least a dozen of the creatures started pounding on the fence and the sound kept getting louder and louder as more and more of the creatures joined in on beating the fence. The whole damn fence started to shake and creek from just how many of the creatures there were pounding on the fence. They both stared in amazed horror as several of the planks started to come loosen or crack. Suddenly there were three distant gun shots and almost immediately the creatures stopped hitting the fence and judging by the sounds of their moans and growls the creatures had all started heading off in the direction of the gun shots.

After he was sure that they were gone he lowered the shotgun leaned forward and took several deep breaths trying to lower his heart rate and get his nerves under control so he could actually think rationally. Lunnesa was doing the same and between the two of them she was the first to speak. _"Those people...no those **things**. They aren't...god they aren't alive are they?"_

 _"No...no they can't be not with those kinds of injuries they have to be dead and none of them had daemons."_ He answered locking eyes with her. _"But that makes no sense if their dead how are they moving?"_

 _"I don't know."_ Lunnesa said softly shaking her head. _"Whatever it is has to have something to do with that weird scent that's coming from them."_ Then she looked at him sideways and added with a sniff. _"I told you we should have mastered in science and biology and not in history. If you had listened to me we probably wouldn't be in this mess and we'd probably would know what's going on."_

It took him a second but then he smiled and gave a shaky laugh. _"You know by your usual standards that joke was terrible."_

Lunnesa snorted saying. _"We just got chased through the woods by dead things sorry if I can't be a comedic genius right now. Besides that was better then what you can do on your best day since you have the sense of humor of a_ _cactus."_

 _"Hey! I'm not that bad."_ He argued with a chuckling.

_"Oh really name one time since high school that you purposely told a joke and got more then a dry chuckle."_ Lunnesa asked both sounding and feeling smug, he knew full well that if her muzzle didn't prevent it she'd be smiling too.

He shook his head still chuckling but conceded the point. _"Point taken."_

 _"See that's what daemons are for. I'm not just the physical representation of your soul and inner self I'm also here so we can balance each other out and I make up for your lack of a sense of humor by being the fun one."_ Lunnesa said drawing herself up with all the dignity of an alpha female. Then she narrowed her eyes. _"So now why don't you be a good little human and balance out my lack of opposable thumbs and help me get this annoying thing off."_

He knew that given the situation most people would consider their banter to be nothing but a waist of time and to a point he knew that they would be right. But their banter had it's purpose now they both were completely calm and thinking clearly which allowed them both to organize what they knew about what was happening, their many question about the situation, and what their priorities should be because even if this was localized to this part of the state there had to be at least thousands already dead. He nodded his head suddenly all business and straightened up griping the shotgun a little tighter and said. _"The garage would be our best bet to find a pair of wire cutters to cut that off with."_

They made their way over to the door leading into the garage he thought for a second about using the shotgun to blow off the lock but those things seemed attracted to loud noises and he sure as hell didn't want to draw them all back here. So instead he gave himself a few feet to build up a running start and slammed into the door shoulder first but the was sturdy so it didn't do much more then shake in it's frame and refused to budge no matter how hard he pushed. He backed off slightly and grabbed the doorknob thinking that if he turned the knob then he could put his whole weight against just the deadbolt and it would increase his chances of breaking the door open when he slammed into it again. But to his utter astonishment the moment he turned the doorknob the door popped open without the slightest resistance.

There was a long and heavy sigh from behind him. He looked over his should and saw that Lunnesa had her head down, eyes closed, and one paw resting at the base of her muzzle right between her eyes almost as if she was face palming. (face pawing?) No he realized that's _exactly_ what she's doing she's face palming at him. _"Hey! Who in their right mind would have believed that these people would have left their garage door unlocked?"_ He asked in his defense.

Lunnesa just gave another long suffering sigh then without even bothering to open her eyes or remove her paw from her face she started slowly shaking her head and said. _"Yes Lee most people would have assumed that the door would be locked. But again **most** people with commonsense would have tried the doorknob first before they felt the need to bruise their shoulder against the door. It's this little thing called the 'Self-Preservation Instinct' you might have heard of it."_

Feeling like a complete dumbass he grumbled to himself and opened the door and stepped inside shotgun raised. It was mostly dark inside but he didn't see any of the shadows moving but still he reach over and flipped the light switch flooding the garage with light and he was glad to see that without a car in the garage there was no where for anything to hide. Lowering the shotgun he limped over to a workbench that had nearly every tool he could think of mounted on the wall behind it and two large red toolboxes next to it. He quickly pulled a pair of hand held wire cutters from the wall and crouched down and started cutting through the plastic and braided steel wires of the muzzle being very careful not to cut Lunnesa.

When the muzzle was finally off Lunnesa worked her jaw and the muscles in her checks and lips showing off her teeth before shaking her head and saying out loud. "Oh that feels so much better. It's nice to actually be able to talk out loud."

Smiling he stood back up and looked at the workbench there was a tool bag with the standard collection of screwdrivers, pliers, vice grips, wrenches, pencils, a 100' measuring tape, and a power drill. He debated for a moment then accepted that they needed more then a shotgun if they wanted to survive. So he removed the power drill and spare batteries knowing that if things were half as bad as he thought they were then they'd lose power eventually before things went back to normal even if for only a short time. And put a hack saw, a collapsible wood saw, the wire cutter, a 5 lb solid black smiths hammer, and a small set of bolt cutters in their place before zipping up the bag and putting the shoulder strap over his shoulder. He looked around and saw camping equipment, hiking gear, fishing gear, and other potentially useful items but he already felt guilty enough for taking the tools so they left everything else and walked out of the garage turning off the light and closing the door.

[](https://imgur.com/7j3riPE) (just in case someone out there doesn't know what a blacksmiths hammer looks like)

They went up the steps and over to the sliding glass door but before he could do anything Lunnesa started sniffing the air and poked her head to through the rails to get a better sniff towards the ground. Seeing that he sniffed too and he and was surprised the neither of them had notice it before now. There were several older human scents that were pretty faded but there was one that was brand new. Neither of them had the skill to be able to tell more then that the scent was recent and that whoever left it was a women and was alive at the time. For all they knew whoever left this scent left it early this morning, a couple of hours ago, or while he was cutting the muzzle off of Lunnesa.

_"Do you think that their inside the house?"_ He asked using their bond again since there was a chance that somebody else was close enough to here them.

_"I don't know."_ Lunnesa said with a frustrated growl. _"We really should have done some kind of advanced training what good does a good sense of smell do us if we can tell someone was here but not how long ago or where they went?"_

 _"Not much we can do about it now. At least now we have a heads up."_ He answered glancing around but he didn't see anything that really stood out. But he decided to treat the sliding glass door with a whole new amount of caution, he peered through the glass but all of the lights inside were off so he couldn't see much. He knocked on the glass and yelled. "Hello! Is anyone home?"

He waited for a moment but when he didn't hear anything he decided to try the door, he slid the door open and instantly his nose was assaulted by the smell of rotting and the skin crawling scent he'd come to associate with the creatures. "Oh no." He said trying not to gag, he raised his shotgun but he didn't dare step inside.

Lunnesa curled her lip and scrunched up her nose and said. "Okay that is a lot worse then skunk road kill."

"Yeah." He said as he cut off his connection to Lunnesa's sense of smell which earned him a disapproving look from her. "But the question is does it smell like that because the creature in there has been dead longer then the others or is it _dead_ like the officer?" He asked slowly entered the house keeping the shotgun raise as he did and Lunnesa stayed close to his side. He stopped and waited for his eyes to adjust once he was six feet or so into the building.

Bit as his eyes adjusted the more he was able to see and the more that he could see the more his eyes widened and his heart filled with dread. The dining area seemed mostly untouched but all of the furniture in the living room were disheveled and most part of it had been flipped or even thrown. The kitchen was the worse the counters were a mess and it was obvious that someone had searched the cabinets but covering the floor was a pool of congealed blood just as big as he was that hadn't completely dried. And he could see hand and foot prints leading out of it as if somebody had crawled through the blood.

He could feel Lunnesa's own growing dread and uneas because the only light in the living room was coming from the tv which was on and was only showing a blue please stand by screen. That meant that there were plenty of shadows for one of the creatures to hide in."Let's clear the living room and work out way back from there." He said softly Lunnesa didn't say a word instead she sent feelings of understanding through their bond.

They made their way forward slowly half expecting one of those creatures to jump out at them from the shadows. There was nothing on the other side of the couch or under the coffee table, the two of them only started to relax when they turned towards the stairs. Because at the bottom of the stairs was a large bookshelf and crushed under it were two of the creatures neither of them were moving or making a sound. Lunnesa started looking around more while he used what little light that filtered through the blinds and that came from the TV to just barely make out where parts of the banister were pushed out and deep gouges in the dry wall opposite them. Seeing that and the way the creatures were half under the book shelf and smashed between the shelf and the wall he was sure that the bookshelf had been at the top of the stairs then someone -probably their mystery woman- pushed it down the stairs on top of the creatures. With how the bookshelf had landed it blocked off access to the upstairs maybe if his leg wasn't injured he could climb over it easily but it would a lot of effort as is.

Seeing as the creatures in the house weren't going to get back up he lowered his shotgun and walked over to the window by the front door and peek out between the blinds. He saw what looked like a war zone there were crashed and burned out cars spread out randomly up and down the street, there were very few fences that didn't have holes in them, almost every house he could see had broken windows, and at least half of the doors were left ajar or had been broken down. But what unnerved him the most was the blood, there was blood everywhere on almost everything and yet there wasn't anywhere near enough bodies to account for even half of all of that blood. Just how many of those thing had been made from the people of just this _one_ neighborhood?

"Lee." Lunnesa said his name softly. He didn't respond at first thinking that she was using his eyes to look out at the street but then she called him again with the same tone. "Lee." He looked over at her and for a moment he saw that her silver eyes were filled with heartbreak then she looked back at the wall a couple of feet to his left and said. "There was a little girl here."

He moved back and to the left some so he could clearly see what Lunnesa was looking at. He saw a small plaster plaque hanging on the wall next to a family photo of a black man with a beaver daemon, a woman with light chocolate brown skin with a carrier pigeon daemon, and a little girl with bushy hair and the same light chocolate brown skin as her mother her daemon had taken the form of a dove for the picture. On the plaque were the two small painted hand prints of a young child with the name 'Clementine' written below them, and next to the hand prints were two tiny paw prints with the name 'Mar' written underneath them in what looked like glitter ink.

He felt his heart clench and knew why Lunnesa was upset there had been a little girl in this house. He looked around himself at the destroyed living room, the pool of blood in the kitchen, and the two dead creatures on the stairs. God if that little girl was here when all of this happened...he didn't want to think about what would have happened to her if she was here when it happened.

He sighed and shook his head it wouldn't help anything to dwell on it besides there wasn't a car in the garage so her parents probably took her and ran. That idea was further reinforced by the fact that the two dead creatures were both white men. He reached down and gently scratched Lunnesa between her ears and said. "Come on let's check the kitchen for anything we can use."

For a second Lunnesa leaned her head against his hand as he scratched her then she pulled her head away and lead the way back to the kitchen. She trying to skirt around the worst of the pool of congealed blood but since the blood covered most of the floor at the entrance of the kitchen it was impossible to completely avoid. Because of that Lunnesa's left hind paw slipped in a glob of blood causing her paw to slide into the deepest part of the pool completely covering her paw in blood but thankfully she kept her self from falling. Lunnesa made a disgusted sound as she jumped clear of the blood and started wiping her paw on a small carpeted mat in front of the sink saying. "Oh gross it's all gooey and slimy."

If it were any other circumstances seeing his daemon act like that would have been funny but this was all just to grim and morbid for anyone to find it funny. After see Lunnesa slip he braced himself against the counter to keep from falling as he made his way past the blood. Once he was past it the first thing that did was search the cabinets for a cup filled it with water and drank it all quickly then he refilled the cup and drained it twice more. Feeling much better he decided to reach back into the cabinets and pulled out a large salad bowl and filled it with water for Lunnesa.

Even though daemons could be hurt and could bleed like any other living thing being the physical manifestation of a person's soul a daemons body is made up of pure energy, which is why they disappear when their human dies. Because of this they healed from most injuries in a few days at most and very very few injuries had permanent or lasting effects even if the same injury would cripple an actual animal. This also means daemons don't need to eat or drink anything to survive, they will feel hungry or thirsty when their human does but they don't need to eat or drink anything themselves. Of course that doesn't mean that daemons don't enjoy a drink of ice cold water after a heavy workout or that they don't enjoy the taste of a good steak.

So giving Lunnesa something to drink was second nature he didn't even think about it as he filled the bowl and set it down in front her. Lunnesa thanked him and started lapping up the water while he turned started looking through the rest of the cabinets and then through all of the drawers. All he found were dishes, cleaning supplies, and napkins the only thing he found that could be of any use was a walkie talkie which he clipped to his belt.

Having gotten that out of the way turned and walked back out of the kitchen and walked over to a small side table that had a few candles, a knocked over flower vase, and an answering machine which was beeping and flashing showing it had three new messages. He'd put off listening to them in favor of making sure they were alone and to drink some water before he passed out from dehydration. He knew that whatever was on the answering machine had nothing to do with him and that there was a chance that the messages were about PA meetings, a reminder to come to work early, and some lady calling to share gossip. But there was a small chance that they might learn some new piece of information on what was happening.

Seeing where his thoughts were going Lunnesa followed him out licking the last few drops of water from her muzzle before saying. "You know that's these peoples personal business we shouldn't be prying. I know you've heard the phrase 'curiosity killed the cat'."

He nodded and said. "I know. But for all we know either of the man or the women in the photo we saw could be a cop or work part time in the national guard and might have called home to warn their family to get out and tell them why. And even if their not that doesn't mean someone didn't call here with some piece of information we don't have, do you want to risk missing out on something that could save our lives or to save the lives of others?"

Lunnesa narrowed her eyes and said. "That's a very well thought out argument mister professor it might just work with someone else. But your forgetting I'm literally inside of your head I know that you just want to hear a voice that isn't yours or mine."

He raised an eye brow at her and in all seriousness asked. "And are you saying that after being chased by a bunch of dead people that you don't?"

Lunnesa looked away then sighed and said. "Well hit play already."

He reached out and pressed play. _"_ Three new messages. Message one. Left at 5:43 pm. _Hey, Sandra, this is Dianna. We're still in Savannah. Ed had a little 'incident' with some crazy guy near the hotel, so we had to get him back to the ER and have it checked out. Anyway, he and Nellecta (nel-lec-a) aren't feeling well enough to drive back tonight, so we're staying an extra day Thanks so much for looking after Clementine, and I promise we'll be back in time before your spring break!"_

He looked down at Lunnesa as she asked out loud what was going through both of their minds. "That little girl was here with a babysitter!?"

"Message two. Left at 11:19 pm. _Oh my god, I don't know if you've tried to reach us; all the calls are getting dropped. They're not letting us leave and aren't telling us anything about Atlanta. Please, please, just leave the city and take Clementine with you back to Marietta. I've got to get to the hospital. Please let me know you're sa-"_ The woman Diana said now sounding scared and stressed but then a male voice cut in sounding like they were yelling from a distance but he could still just barely make out what was said. _" **Diana, Diana we need to get out of here now right fucking now!**_ _Pollen? Pollen what are you seeing from up there? What's- Oh my god...OH MY GOD!"_ Diana started to question the new voice but then her voice went up several octavos into pure terror before the message ended. He could only assume that because of the name the male voice was her carrier pigeon daemon. The third message started playing and this time it sounded like Diana was cry and they could hear Pollen yelling but this time he was much louder and speaking at the same time as Diana was. "Message three. Left at 6:51 am. _Clementine? Baby, if you can hear this, call the police. That's 9-1-1. We love you... we love you... we love y- (at the same time) **We have to find a way out! Diana do you...No, no, NO, NO! Diana you can't give up now Ed and Nellecta are dead but Clementine and Mari still need us! We-**_ No new messages. Would you like to save these messages?" Hearing that last message was like getting punched in the gut but he played it again because it was hard to tell because of Diana saying goodbye and Pollen's yelling but he thought that he heard a third sound in the background. On the second play he heard it more clearly now that he was looking for it he closed his eyes feeling his heart clench and Lunnesa half whimpered half whined in a mix of horror and sorrow they knew what it meant, after what they'd seen in the hour or so since they'd woken up they knew what the moans of the dead meant.

They both jumped when the walkie talkie on his belt squawked. He pulled it from his belt just as he heard a small voice ask. "Daddy?"

"Is that the little girl?" Lunnesa asked instantly.

He held up one finger then walked over to the sliding glass door and half asked. "Hello?"

"You need to be quiet." The voice answered.

"Who is this?" He asked lowering his voice to a whisper.

"I'm Clementine. This is my house." Clementine answered.

They hadn't seen her when they looked down here but he still asked Lunnesa privately. _"Do you smell her."_

Lunnesa shook her head in response saying. _"No all I can smell is those things by the stairs."_

Nodding he said into the radio. "Hi Clementine. I'm Lee."

"Your not my daddy." Clementine said sounding disappointed.

Knowing what happened to her parents and that she didn't know since he was the first the hear those messages made his gut twist into a knot as he said. "No, I'm not."

"But you grabbed my daddy's tool bag." Clementine said sounding confused.

He internally cringed slightly as he moved back into the kitchen. Know just how scared Clementine must be he was willing to wait for her to come out of her hiding spot on her own time as he knew just how well a truly scared kid could hide and that it would only scare her more if he found her before she was ready. Knowing that she had either seen him herself or her daemon had and he knew lying wouldn't help so he said. "Yes I did."

"But that's stealing! And my parents said that stealing is bad." Clementine said sounding upset now.

He nodded his head to himself he could see only one way this conversation could go anywhere good so he said. "Your right it is stealing, and stealing is bad. But I'm not taking your daddy's tool bag because I want to mean or bad, I'm doing it because of the monsters. Me and my daemon are hurt and we can't run fast so if lots of monsters come we need to hide in a house but lots of doors are lock and we can't get in without the tool. So I'm not taking your daddy's tools because I'm bad, I'm taking them so the monster don't get me or my daemon."

 _"_ _Seriously, that's the best you can_ _do?"_ Lunnesa asked scathingly. _" 'I'm not stealing because I'm bad. I'm stealing because I'm scared.'."_

He didn't answer Lunnesa instead he waited on Clementine she was quiet for a few more seconds before saying. "That's okay...I think..." Clementine sounded hesitant like she wasn't sure if what she was saying correct.

She was quiet for a little bit longer so he asked. "How old are you?"

"Eight." Clementine answered.

"And your all alone?" He asked wondering what happened to the 'Sandra' Diana mentioned in her voice messages.

"Yes. I don't know where anybody is." Clementine said and this time he could hear some fear laced in with her words. Then she hesitantly asked. "How old are you?"

Not expecting her to feel comfortable enough to start asking questions of her own so quickly he stumbled over his answer slightly earning him an eye roll from Lunnesa. "Ummm... I'm thirty-seven." Since she felt comfortable enough to start asking her own questions he decided to try his luck and asked. "Are you safe?"

"I'm outside in my treehouse. They can't get in." Clementine said.

He leaned his shotgun against the counter and leaned his body closer to the kitchen window as his eyes were immediately drawn out the window to the treehouse. He'd noticed it when they first made it over the fence but thought nothing of it it was too small and too high for him to reach especially with his injured leg.

_"Well now we know who the mystery scent belongs to, and where they went."_ Lunnesa said to him standing up on her hind legs with her front paws on the counter so she could see out of the window too.

He nodded with a small smile then to Clementine he said. "That's really smart."

"See?" Clementine asked as she pushed open the door to her treehouse and he and Lunnesa got their first real look at the little girl and her daemon as her daemon flew past her head as a hummingbird before turning into a rabbit. They were both relieved that even from this distance the two of them looked unharmed. "Can you see me? I can see you through the window." Clementine added waving at them.

He raised his hand and waved back he was going to ask if she would be willing to come down both so he and Lunnesa could get a better look at the two of them and make sure they weren't hurt. But Clementine screamed and both she and her daemon pulled back into her treehouse.

On instinct both he and Lunnesa looked around and saw the corpse of a teenage girl standing at the entrance of the kitchen but before either of them could react she lunged at Lunnesa who was closest to her. The girl tried to grab Lunnesa but didn't manage to get a good hold on Lunnesa's fur before the speed of her attack knocked Lunnesa to the ground Lunnesa lost some more fur but the girl had lost her chance for a quick kill. He grabbed the girl by the shoulders before she could follow up with another attack and spun half pushing half throwing her into the counter behind him knocking her to the ground as Lunnesa scrambled back up to her feet.

"Get back!" He yelled at Lunnesa as he started moving backwards as fast as he could with his leg and while fighting to open the zipper on the tool bag so he could grab the blacksmiths hammer, all the while cursing himself for putting the shotgun down. He'd just started to get the zipper open when the foot of his bad leg landed in the middle of the blood pool and slid out from under him. He slammed shoulder first into counter causing him to lose the tool bag and a instant later his head bounce off the linoleum so hard his vision flashed white and he started to see stars.

He laid there trying hard to clear both his sight and thoughts. Then a voice cut through the confusion clouding his mind yelling. "Lee! Kick! Kick out now!"

It was more adrenaline and instinct that sent his in uninjured foot sailing through the air then actual conscious control but he felt the solid impact as his leg connected with the girl's head with a solid thump that was followed by a second thump a little bit further away. The simple cause and effect of kicking the girl and the sound of Lunnesa's voice helped him clear his mind enough to regain control and start crawling backwards toward the sliding glass door. He didn't make it far before the girl grabbed a hold of him and started pulling herself up his body, he jammed his left forearm up under her jaw keeping her snapping teeth back even as she grabbed a hold of him and tried to pull him towards her mouth.

He brought his leg up under his and tried to kick her off but he couldn't get a good angle to pull it off. The next thing he knew Lunnesa locked her jaws on the girl's right shoulder from behind and started trying to pull her off of him. But the girl didn't seem to even notice that a very angry and scared wolf had buried her teeth in her shoulder or the fact that said wolf was yanking her backwards. Her whole attention stayed on him as her teeth bit the air in front of him.

Then Clementine and her daemon appeared out of nowhere not five feet from his head their eyes filled with fear and they were shaking but Clementine still held a long handled roofing hammer out to him and yelled. "Here, take it!"

He reached out with his free hand and grabbed the hammer and yelled. "Lu let go now!"

_"But-"_ Lunnesa started to argue but he didn't let her.

"Do it now!" He yelled. Without another word Lunnesa let go and jumped clear. He planted both feet on the ground and bucked his hips up to lift the girl up and throw her already uncoordinated attack off balance. At the same time he twisted his shoulders to the side and used his left forearm as leverage to roll them both over so that when they came to a stop he was kneeling on the girl's chest pinning her down. He raised the roofing hammer and brought it down with all of his weight behind it and he felt the girl's skull give a little but it wasn't enough as she was still struggling to grab him so he brought the hammer down again and again. Then on his fourth strike he let out a yell. "AAHHH!" And this time the girls skull caved in and he had to put some real muscle behind pulling the hammer back out.

He took a step back trying to catch his breath and Lunnesa pressed her side against his leg reassuringly then they all just stared at the body of the girl for a moment. Then he looked up to get a better look at Clementine and her daemon was without a doubt the girl they'd seen in the family picture she had long long black bushy hair, light chocolate brown skin, honey colored eyes, she had on a white dress, a pair of blue pocketless pants, and a blue and white baseball cap with a big 'D' on it. She was holding her daemon tightly to her chest and he was currently still in a rabbit form with snow white fur. He was relieved to see that other then a couple fresh drops from him swinging the hammer there was no blood on them and that Clementine didn't look like she'd been going hungry then he noticed that they both were shaking a little so he took a deep breath then as softly as he could said. "Hi there."

Clementine looked up at him back down, taking step back from the new pool of blood forming by their feet then back up to him and seemed to steady herself before asking. "Did...did you kill it?"

That honestly wasn't what he was expecting her to say. "Yes." Was all he said giving her a worried look afraid that this was just the calm before the storm and she was about to freak out or break down at any moment.

Clementine seemed to catch on to his worry but misinterpreted it because she looked up at him and said. "It okay. I think she was a monster." Clementine sounded sad but only as if she was sad that the girl had become a monster. He couldn't believe it he was cover in blood and had bashed some poor girl's head in. He was worried he had just traumatized Clementine and here she was trying to reassure him that he didn't do anything wrong by reminding him that the girl had been one of the monsters. He even looked at her daemon for any sign that she was just putting on a brave face but despite obviously still being a little scared and sad since his ears were down the rabbit held eye contact and nodded his head reassuringly.

_"I think they're both a lot tougher the either of us thought."_ Lunnesa whispered inside his head. Then she took a step towards Clementine and her daemon giving them a canine smile and in a motherly tone said. "And it was very brave of you two to come down here and help us even though you knew she was a monster." That got a small smiles from both Clementine and her daemon. Then addressing Clementine's daemon directly she said. "Well we already know our human's names but we haven't shared ours yet. So my name is Lunnesa is your's Mar?"

Both Clementine and her daemon looked shocked to hear Lunnesa say the name but Clementine's daemon cocked his head to the side and said. "My name's Mari. (Pronounced Mar-ee like Mario but without the 'o' **_not_** like Mary) But 'Mar' is the nickname that our parents gave me, how did you know that?"

Both he and Lunnesa were surprised because they realized they'd made a mistake. They'd assumed that when they heard the name 'Mari' in the voice message that had Diana's daemon Pollen's last moments on it was in reference to a completely different person and because the plaque had, had the names 'Clementine' and 'Mar' that they'd fit with the majority of people who's daemons were the opposite of their own gender. Neither of them had thought that Clementine's daemon would be a girl too, but there was no doubting that Mari is a girl both because of her name and because she sounded distinctly feminine. There was nothing wrong or abnormal about it while it was true that with the vast majority of people their daemons were the opposite gender from themselves if they remembered correctly roughly fifteen percent of the world's total population (roughly 1.1 billion) had a daemon the same gender as they were. Infact their own father had a male daemon and it was a running joke in their family that it was a miracle that he, Lunnesa, their brother Bud, and his daemon Nethra had grown up with any manners at all with them having been raised with three fathers and only one mother.

Without missing a beat Lunnesa answered. "We saw the plaque on the wall in the living room it, the one with Clementine's hand prints and your paw prints on it that's how I knew. And don't worry we won't call you 'Mar' if you don't want us too we'll understand if that's something you want to reserve specially for your parents."

Mari nodded looking bashful and softly said. "Thank you."

Both Clementine and Mari seemed far more relaxed and comfortable around him and Lunnesa he was glad that they'd earned their trust. But they were still in danger who knew when the next group of those things came. _"Lu it's dangerous here we need to leave."_ He said privately.

Lunnesa turned her head to look at him and asked. _"Lee we aren't just going to leave these two alone are we?"_

He glared at Lunnesa and asked. _"Your my daemon do you really think that I'd abandon a little girl and her daemon to be torn apart by those things? Because the answer is no. When I say 'we need to leave' I don't mean just you and me I mean all four of us. Because we both heard those messages we know her parents aren't coming back and I'll bet that the girl on the floor right next to us is her babysitter Sandra I don't care if we get charged with kidnapping we're not leaving them on their own"_

Lunnesa flinched slightly her ears going flat. _"I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that. And your right we should leave the question is should we leave now or wait until it's dark? I could make an argument for either one."_

 _"We also need to decide on where we're going to go."_ He added. _"I can think of only one place to go right now and that's Macon, but from the look of thing outside I don't like or odds of finding a none crashed car nearby, that'll be one hell of a walk we'll need supplies. I know we didn't search this place for food and thing like that but maybe we should and maybe we should check the other houses here on the block."_

They both were quiet taking a few second to weigh their options before making their choice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well there you guys go the first chapter and as promised here are your choices. PLEASE, PLEASE if you read place your vote down in the comments.

**Choice 1.** You've found a little girl and her daemon all on their own their parents and babysitter are dead walking corpses are all around you so it's not safe to stay what do you do?

**A.** Leave while you have day light it'll be easier for you to spot the dead. But it will also be easier for them to see you. (You will meet Shawn and Chet)

**B.** Wait until it's dark it'll be harder for you to see but with your's and Lunnesa's sense of smell you'll be able to smell it when the dead are getting close. Plus you might be able to convince Mari who is an unsettled daemon to temporarily turn into an owl.(You will meet Shawn and Officer Andre Mitchell)

**C.** You don't completely know what's going and you have no guarantee to find a working vehicle to get to Macon. The 'in game' time is 2:36 pm luckily for you it's the middle of June so the sun won't start to set until 9:00 pm so you'll use the time you have to search the block for supplies.

( **WARNING:** This choices is a divergence choice. When faced with a divergence choice you will have to choose from a number of sub options. These sub potions will have both a positive and a negative outcome these outcomes will be chosen by coin tosses. What this means is that the baseline modifier 10pos/10neg I'll toss a coin until it lands on either heads or tails 10 times. Heads will be for the positive outcome, tails is for the negative outcome. This modifier can be changed by your choices and the situation for example if Lee went on a scouting mission with another member of the group and they get taken by bandits and Lee and Lunnesa goes in the during the dead of night without waiting for back up their sense of smell and the dark will give them a +2 positive modifier for getting in and out unnoticed and a -3 negative modifier for dealing with guards if spotted. This means their chances of going unnoticed 8pos/12neg so if the coin lands on head's 8 times before tail's 12 Lee and Lunnesa get in and out without being seen. But if the coin lands on tail's 12 times before head's 8 Lee and Lunnesa will be spotted and I'll flip again this time the modifier will be 13pos/7neg if the coin lands on heads 13 times they'll take down the guard quietly but if the coin lands on tails 7 times Lee and Lunnesa will be captured too. But waiting for back up or choosing to take more then one person right from the jump would change the scenario quiet a bit. This modifier can be further altered by who you still have alive and/or with you and the kind of gear you have. If you take a divergence choice and get a negative outcome it could result in the lose of gear, supplies, the death and/or large loses of reputation points with other characters. But with great risk comes great reward getting a positive outcome you might gain reputation points with other characters and/or keep them from dying plus you might be given a choice between great gear for example you might have to choose between a full set of riot gear to walk through a hord in or a crate of RPGs to fire up Carvers ass Daryl Dixon style. Items like these might weigh in your favor on future divergent choices or open entirely new option. So weigh you options decide if it's worth the risk of a negative outcome or if it's worth the risk of not having the special gear or other items that are offered.)

Pos modifier: none Negative modifier: none Bonus:first divergence choice +1

final divergence modifier chance 9pos/11neg

**sub option C1.** It's too dangerous to leave Clementine and Mari alone take them with you as you search for supplies doing this will allow you to get a little more supplies then if you go alone. *Positive outcome: Clementine and Mari listen to Lee's and Lunnesa's instructions allowing them to save Chet.(Consequences: gain better reputation with Chet, Shawn, Officer Andre Mitchell, and Hershel. gain a weapon for Clementine or gear for Lee) *Negative outcome: Clementine and Mari panic and don't listen to Lee's and Lunnesa's instructions forcing them to let Chet die in order to go back for them. (Consequences: lose of reputation with Shawn, Officer Andre Mitchell, and Hershel. No extra gear or weapons)

**sub option C2.** It's too dangerous to take Clementine and Mari with you have them go back up into their treehouse and go looking for supplies alone. *Positive outcome: Clementine and Mari wait for Lee and Lunnesa to come back, Lee and Lunnesa save Chet. (Consequences: gain better reputation with Chet, Shawn, Officer Andre Mitchell, and Hershel. gain a weapon for Clementine or gear for Lee) *Negative outcome don't wait for Lee and Lunnesa and accidentally draw a group of twenty walkers into the back yard Lee and company most fight off the walkers to get to Clementine and Mari (Consequences: N/A depends on how you handle the walkers could gain reputation points or could result in the deaths of both Officer Andre Mitchell and Chet causing Shawn and Hershel to hat Lee's guts. No extra gear or weapons)

**Choice 2.** You know what happened to Clementine's and Mari's parents what should you do about it?

**A.** She needs to know play the voice messages for her now. (Consequences: If you want to chose C for choice one the automatic default is sub option C2 as Clementine and Mari will to upset to go with Lee and Lunnesa. Because Clementine and Mari are acting depressed will make other characters ask questions)

**B.** The message machine has a back up battery pack in case of power outages so save the messages to the answering machine and take it with you and play the messages for Clementine and Mari at a later date. (Consequences: there is a 3pos/17neg chance of losing the machine when the pharmacy is overrun. Just to reiterate that mean if the coin lands on heads 3 times before it lands on tails 17 times and the machine is safe)

**C.** Protect Clementine and Mari from the truth for as long as you can they'll figure it out on their own when their old enough to handle it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(exhausted sigh) Okay explaining the divergence choice took a _hell_ of a lot longer to do then I thought

it would but here we are finally info on how to submit OC characters follow the following template.

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Gender & Race:**

**Daemon's name & form(s): **Daemons aren't typically give typical human names like John, Paul, or Becky they're typically given names like Maximus, Lunnesa, Pollen, Mari, Talion things like that. If you don't add a name for your character's daemon I'll come up with one. (if your character is under the age of 18 and unsettle list the daemons four or five favorite forms)

 **Positive traits:** at least 3 for both the human and their daemon Examples: loyal, always level headed, caring, always has a sense of humor, ect. (please specify which traits belong to the human and which belong to the daemon they can have as many trait in common as you like but daemons _are not_ mirror images of their humans and they _do not_ act exactly the same as their humans they are reflections of that persons soul or inner most personality but they also have their own unique personality)

 **Negative traits:** at least 3 for both the human and their daemon Examples: short tempered, trust issues, drinking problems, doesn't play nice with others, ect. (please specify which traits belong to the human and which belong to the daemon they can have as many trait in common as you like but daemons _are not_ mirror images of their humans and they _do not_ act exactly the same as their humans they are reflections of that persons soul or inner most personality but they also have their own unique personality)

 **Skills no more then 3:** Examples: martial arts training, military training, playing the guitar, singing, ect. **(Don't underestimate the smaller skills and talents some times the most _meaningful_ characters aren't the ones who kick ass like John Wicked or doge bullets like an anime character)**

 **Description:** Give a brief description of the kind of person your character and their daemons are, give their back story where they're from, what their family's like, their former job, and if it applies how and why they got certain personality traits or skills.

Just a heads up there is a chance that I might have to tweak your character slightly for the story if that happens I will inform you and you will still get credit for the character. Here's an example: Let's say you submitted a character who is a school teacher that spent the first few weeks of the out break protecting a schoolbus full of kids until he was separated from them by a herd of walkers and has been on his own ever since. I might change that to a school teacher who was forcefully drafted into the national guard at the start of the out break to fight the walkers but saw the writing on the wall and deserted first chance he had to protect his student. Or maybe you've submitted a great character that I really want to use but they seem to be a little OP I might balance it out by say they lost an eye or were a kung fu master until they took an arrow to the knee. Hell it might just be a simple as your character being married to somebody else's character. There will be no major rewrites just small changes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note I thought I should clarify a part of this story. I know that in most daemon au's touching another person's daemon causes extreme pain I don't think that would work out well here. Because everyone would get killed the first time a walker touches their daemon. So instead there will are very strict rules about touching other peoples daemons. And on average the maximum distance Daemons can go from their human is 20 feet (or about 6 meters). This distance can be increased through proper training but it is a slow and grueling process taking months to increase the range to 40 feet (or 12 meters). The maximum distance between human and daemon is 70 yards (or 120 feet/64 meters). If the maximum distance is exceeded it has varying consequences depending on the distance between the two from extreme pain, seizures, strokes, and death.

Hey everybody here's the next chapter the votes from the last chapter stand at:

**Choice 1:** 3 votes for C1 and 1 vote for A

 **Choice 2:** unanimous for B

The choice modifiers for these choices stand at:

**Choice 1** , C1, 9pos/11neg: the coin landed 9 times on heads and 9 times on tails. So we get the positive outcome.

 **Choice 2** , B, 3pos/17neg: the coin landed 3 times on heads and 1 time on tails. So the answering machine will be safe when the pharmacy is overrun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This means people are talking out loud"

_"This means a person and their daemon are speaking privately mind to mind"_

"This will be used for when someone is speaking through electronics like radios or walkie talkies"

Lee's POV

They both were quiet taking a few seconds to weigh their options before making their choice.

Then Lunnesa sighed. _"Your right."_ Then she added her tone becoming bitter. _"As much as I hate to say this we don't know how big this whole thing is or how long it will last. And our best bet is to plan for the worst and hope for the best. To do that we need to get supplies."_

 _"Do you hate it because of the worse case scenario or because we're going to be robbing the homes of a lot of dead people."_ He asked her softly half hoping she'd contradict him or at least tell him that he was over thinking how bad things were. As he had a habit of doing sometimes.

But she didn't instead Lunnesa just stared back at him fear clearly etched in her canine face and whispered back. _"Both."_ He didn't need their bond to know they were both terrified or to know why.

A week ago while they were in county lock up waiting for their final court date they'd heard strange news reports on the radio the guards posted to watch them would listening to. The report said that there were scattered claims across the world of people believe to be infected with a new form of rabies going nuts and attacking people. And that the CDC and WHO were investigating to see if there was any truth these claims. At the time they had brushed it off as something strange that didn't concern them. But now with that strange scent coming from the creatures, they both agreed that when both seeing and smelling them the first thing they thought of was 'disease'. So if this is what wasdescribed in the news reports and it had spread this quickly in just a week, what was going to happen if it keeps spreading?

"Are you okay?" A small scared voice asked pulling them out of their thoughts. They turned and saw that Clementine and Mari were watching them, and by both of their expressions they were more than a little scared. "You've been staring at each other with serious looks on your faces. You were talking through your bond right? So is something wrong?" Clementine asked although her voice was soft and shaky as if she was terrified to hear their answer.

"Your not going to leave us alone are you?" Mari burst out suddenly her eyes slightly wild with terror and her rabbit nose quivering.

Both his and Lunnesa's eyes went wide. Ofcourse, Clementine and Mari had been completely alone surrounded by monsters for at least a full day. Ofcourse they would be scare that the first living adult that found them would leave them. Lunnesa started silently cursing both him and herself for not thinking of that sooner. Meanwhile he didn't hesitate in his answer.

"Easy, just take it easy." He said soothingly making calming hand gestures. "We're not going to leave you, I promise."

"But...but..." Clementine started her eyes watering as her resolve finally started to crack and show just how afraid she really was.

"Hey it's okay." He said gently reaching out and grabbing Clementine's hand (being very careful not to touch Mari) and giving her the most reassuring smile he could manage. "Me and Lunnesa were talking about what the _four_ of us are going to do now. Because we're not going to leave you."

Clementine gripped his hand tightly and nodded her head taking a few shaky deep breaths before asking. "W-what do we do?"

He hesitate for a second as he let go of her hand wondering the best way to explain all this to an eight year old. "We can't stay here, it's not safe with so many monster around. But we can't leave just yet because we don't know bad things are everywhere else. Because if things are really bad we'll need to find food and other things that we need to survive and stay safe. So me and Lunnesa were thinking about searching the houses around here to get what we need."

"Can't we go to the store and get what we need?" Clementine asked shifting her weight from foot to foot hugging Mari to her chest.

He resisted the urge to sigh he didn't like where this conversation was going. He shook his head and said. "I wish we could Clementine I really wish we could. But when everything started going bad lots of people would have rushed to stores to get what they need."

Clementine seemed to curled in on herself ghost appearing in her eyes as she said in a small voice. "And the monsters would have followed them..." Clementine's voice tapered off at the end. But Mari pick up sentence without hesitation and finished it with her own haunted expression and small voice. "...and they would have turned everyone into more monsters."

His heart hurt, he was both happy and horrified that both Clementine and Mari understood what he was going to say before he said it. He was happy because it would make it easier for him to get her to understand why he was doing what he was. And because if we're dealing with the worse case scenario would help keep them safe and alive. But he didn't want to imagine what they must have seen in order to gain that kind of understanding.

He watched as both Clementine and Mari fought for control with a mix of sympathy and regret. It amazed him that neither of them had broken down. Normally in extreme circumstances when a little kid and their daemon were involved at least one of them would have a break down. Either the kid would break while their daemon held it together, or the kid held a brave face while their daemon broke. And while remembering whatever horrors they'd seen had obviously taken a toll on them both pushing them to the edge. As he watched both of Clementine and Mari calmed rather quickly and looked at him expectantly waiting for his instructions. Lunnesa had been right they two of them were tougher than either knew.

Lunnesa surprised him as much as she surprised Clementine and Mari. She walked up to and behind Clementine pressed her side into Clementine's back, and curled her body around the girl in a canine version of a hug and said. "You two don't have to worry about the monsters me and Lee will do everything we can to keep you safe."

While it was very common for daemons to interact with each other. Because a daemon is literally the physical embodiment of a person's soul, for a person to intentionally touch someone else's daemon without expressed permission is taboo. It's treated with the same severity and disgust as rape. Even children younger then Clementine knew that your not supposed to touch another person's daemon or let anyone touch their daemon. The only exceptions to that rule were with parents and their children, spouses, and very close friends.

But even then there were strict rules, parents were expected to stop touching their child's daemon without their daemon initiating the contact first. Children were expected to start doing the same with their parent's daemons around middle school age unless their parents gave them permission to do otherwise. It was the same with spouses and very close friend touching each others daemons is strictly off limits unless their daemon initiates the contact, or you were given permission to do otherwise.

So what Lunnesa just did had a message all it's own and put far more weight to her words. He was even more surprised when he realized that he wasn't upset that she'd done that without talking to him about it. As he thought about it he realized that after seeing Clementine and Mari who were showing more strength then most adults, start to break just thinking that they'd be left behind. He'd already decided that whatever came their way he'd protect the two of them. Even if it killed him as long as he had a say in it neither of Clementine or Mari would reach that breaking point.

He shared a look with Lunnesa and she said privately. _"Their coming with us as we look for supplies."_ It wasn't a question or an order just an affirmation that they were on the same page.

He looked back at Clementine and was happy to see that both she and Mari seemed much more relaxed. And that Clementine was actually leaning against Lunnesa slightly being comforted by the presence of his daemon. He and Lunnesa would have been more then happy to stay that way for a little while but they knew they had to get moving. So he cleared his throat softly to get Clementine's and Mari's attention. They both suddenly looked sheepish especially Clementine as she stopped leaning against Lunnesa's side. Seeing that brought a small smile to his lips as he said. "So me and Lunnesa decided that we should all head to Macon, do you know where that is?" Both Clementine and Mari nodded -although Clementine looked worried- so he continued. "Well we'll go there because it's close enough and that's where mine and Lunnesa's parents live and our brother too, so we should be safe there. But like I was saying before we don't know how bad things are everywhere else so we need supplies. And it will be both easier and safer to get what we need from the houses around here."

He saw Clementine's face fell and Mari's rabbit ears laid down against her back. But Lunnesa pressed against Clementine a little harder and said. "I know you don't want to do that because it's stealing. Me and Lee don't want to do it either but have no choice right now, do you understand why?" Mari looked down at the floor and curled a little closer to Clementines chest but Clementine gave them a sad little nod.

He nodded back before saying. "Now it's too dangerous for me and Lunnesa to have you hide and wait for us while we search the houses. So the two of you are going to come with us so we can keep you safe okay?" He got more nods in response but he could tell they were both nervous. "Alright but if we're going to do this there are going to be a few rules that you'll both have to follow. First, you'll have to stay close to me and Lunnesa. Second, you'll have to listen to what me and Lunnesa tell you to do. If we tell you to hide you hide, if we tell you to runaway you runaway. You understand?"

Mari nodded and Clementine just said. "Yes."

"And third-" He said as he reached down grabbing the roofing hammer, then used a clean spot on the dead girls shirt to clean it. Before he held it out handle first to Clementine. "-if a monster comes after you I don't want you to try and fight it. Your small and fast crawl under a table or a car, and go out the other side the put some distance between you and the monster. Use your size to go where they can't or get up somewhere out of their reach. But if you have to fight try to hit them in the head." Clementine looked extremely hesitant but she did grab the hammer from him.

Then Lunnesa addressed Mari saying. "And Mari any form you take will be too small to fight the monsters. (a daemons form is affected by their humans age. A child's daemon can't turn into a full grown tiger only a tiger cub) But the monsters are slow and really dumb. So you can help Clementine by turning into something fast or turning into a bird, and get the monsters to chase you while staying out of their reach."

"A-alright." Mari answered in response.

Seeing just how nervous the both of them were at the idea of face one of the monsters he added. "Don't worry if we have to fight any monsters me and Lunnesa will deal with them. We're just telling you this just in case one sneaks past us so you'll know what to do, okay?"

Hearing that both Clementine and Mari relaxed a little although they still seemed really nervous. Not being able to think of anything else to say that could help them feel any better. He looked and Lunnesa and asked privately while tilting his head towards the dead girl. _"Do you think there's any more of them upstairs?"_

Lunnesa thought about it then shook her head. _"If there were they would of come downstairs with her"_ She said looking down at the dead girl. Then she gave him the mental equivalent of a sigh and added. _"When Clementine first started talking to you on the walkie talkie, I stared wondering what happened to her babysitter. But I guess that's her, that's Sandra."_

He looked down at Sandra's body trying and failing not to think about what it felt like when her skull caved in. Trying to block out the memory he returned his attention to Clementine and Mari saying. "Alright, when me and Lunnesa were in your garage we saw saw camping gear and big hiking backpacks. If we're going to carry everything we need we'll need those backpacks. And is there any canned food or pasta noodles things like that here, that won't go bad outside of a refrigerator?"

Clementine hesitate for a second looked around then pointed at a pair of wicker doors by the kitchen saying. "There's Spaghetti O's and anther stuff in there."

Then Mari Piped up and said. "And our daddy kept special camping food on one of the shelves in the garage."

"Alright me and Lunnesa will start grabbing that stuff. And while we do that I want the two of you to go up to your room, and I want you to grab four sets of spare cloths and maybe a jacket. Okay?" He told them to do this because if something as uncoordinated could climb over the bookshelf on the stairs so could they.

Clementine nodded but Mari asked. "What about the monsters that bit Sandra? She pushed the bookcase down the stairs at them and got them stuck before she told us to hide in the tree house. What if their still here?"

Lunnesa was the one who answered. "Don't worry those two monsters are dead, and we're pretty sure that Sandra was the only monster left. But if you see anything come and me and Lee immediately, alright?"

Mari nodded her head then jumped out of Clementines arms and the two of the made their way to the stairs. He watched as they hesitated at the base of the stairs making sure that the monsters really were dead, before they started climbing the bookshelf and headed up stairs. Lunnesa came back to stand at his side as he stood back up. He quickly picked up the tool bag (this time making sure to put the blacksmiths hammer in his belt) then retrieved the shotgun. But before walking out to the garage he saved the tree newest messages to the answering machine then he in plugged it and pulled out the batteries.

"What are you doing with that?" Lunnesa asked.

Tucking the machine under the arm he was using to carry the shotgun he said. "Clementine and Mari need to know about their parents. Maybe not now but they still need to know."

The two of them went out to the garage once inside he turned on the light he went straight for the camping and hiking gear. First things he grabbed were the three hiking backpacks each was a different size a small, a medium, and a large. The medium and large were both dark blue while small one was a bright turquoise color with a picture of Disco Broccoli and his band on it. All three were the kind with large pockets to maximize the caring space and a metal frame with a harness to make it easier to carry heavy loads. He put the answering machine in one of the side pockets then looking around he was thankful that Clementine's father had kept things so organized, because it made it easy to find what they needed. He grabbed two sleeping bags one dark blue and the other matched the Disco Broccoli pack (He was beginning to think that Clementine was a fan) and strapped them under their matching packs. He also grabbed a box of water proof matches, four bottles iodine to purifie water, three large metal canteens, a couple of metal pots, a small frying pan, and after a little debating he took a tackle box and several hundred feet of metal fishing line but left the poles because of their bulk.

Then he quickly pulled down the four large boxes labeled 'camping food' from a top shelf. Inside of the first box he found a large amount freeze dried fruit and individual packets of trail mix. The second box was just as full with packets of beef stroganoff and beef stew, the instant camping kind that you only had to add to boiling water and that kept for a long time. The final two boxes both had stickers from an army surplus store and each held twelve assorted MREs. All together this alone would be enough to feed himself and Clementine for a little over a month if they didn't share with their daemons, and longer if they rationed it.

That last thought earned him a few grumbles from Lunnesa about enjoying food too. He tuned her out as he packed everything into the three bags already knowing she wouldn't actually argue the point since daemons didn't need to eat to survive. He put the matches, iodine, and other items in his pack but split three fourths of the food between Clementine's pack and the medium pack which he planned to put on Lunnesa. He did that because they were light and so he'd be carrying the majority of their canned food. But even with all of that just barely half of the room in all three packs was taken up so they still had plenty room.

With that done he started to help get the medium sized pack onto Lunnesa's back which was a challenge at first. Because while there were harnesses designed to hold packs like this to daemons big enough to handle the weight they only had harnesses meant for humans. But by crossing the shoulder straps across Lunnesa's chest to secure the pack at her shoulders and then using a short tow strap with hooks, he created another strap which wrapped around her middle firmly securing the pack to her back. He shoulder his own pack grabbed Clementine's pack and his shotgun and went back into the house. 

He filled the canteens then opened the pantry and put out a dozen cans of Spaghetti O's, another dozen cans of assorted vegetables, and five boxes uncooked noodles. It wasn't as much as he'd been hoping for but everything else he found were ingredients or wouldn't last long before going bad. He distributed them between the three packs (not bothering to take the pack off Lunnesa's back) but put most of the cans in his pack. He'd just finished and zipped up his pack when Lunnesa got his attention.

"Do you think we should go check on them?" She asked looking up at the ceiling. "I don't think that they've got into any trouble. But they should have come back down by now."

He looked up at the ceiling too it had been at least a good ten minutes since Clementine and Mari first went upstairs. Like Lunnesa he didn't think the two of them had gotten into trouble but he decided she was right. "Yeah let's go check on them."

Lunnesa lead the way her pack barely slowing her down, he was close behind but left everything were it was since they didn't expect trouble. It was a tough climb but he got over the bookshelf and as they reached the top of the stairs he called out. "Clementine? Mari?" He didn't get a response but he looked around and saw a short hallway and four doors. He assumed that this must be your standard two story three bedroom two bath. Thankfully he didn't have to guess which door was to Clementine's and Maria's room. The door at the end of the short hallway had a small sign with the words 'Clem' and 'Mar' on it. And was decorated with a number of princess, unicorn, and Disco Broccoli stickers.

He walked over to the door cracked it open and asked. "Clementine? Mari? Are you okay?" Still not getting an answer he opened the door and peeked his head inside. The room was what you'd expect your typical eight year old girl's bedroom to look like but there were signs that she was likely to be a tomboy when she got older. The walls and carpet were pink, Disney princess posters, there was a stuffed unicorn on the bed, a tiara on the dresser, Barbies, and a doll house on the floor. But she had a number of Disco Broccoli toys spread all over the place, her bed spread was Pirates of the Caribbean, there was a toy Cutlass with a black and pink pirate hat by her bed, plastic army men that had been painted pink and white still set up in a mock battle, and finally the baseball posters out numbered the posters of princesses.

The mix of items that filled the room peaked both his and Lunnesa's interest, but he ignored them in favor of finding Clementine and Mari. As he looked closer he the four set's of clothes he'd asked Clementine and Mari to grab laying on the bed. Then he saw the top of Clementine's hat peaking up from between the dresser and the far wall. He walked into the room and saw that Clementine had sat down with her knees to her chest, and Mari now in the form of a hummingbird perched on her shoulder.

He crouch down in front of them and Lunnesa stood next him and he asked. "What's wrong?"

Clementine glanced up at him. "I don't want to be left alone." Clementine started but stopped. But Mari nuzzled into Clementine's neck then she looked him in the eye and finished saying. "But I don't want to leave. What if my parents come home."

He stared at her sadly for a second. Honestly he didn't think telling her and Mari the truth right now would be a good idea, but he didn't want to lie to them either. "With everything that's going on I don't think they'll be able to get back here. Or at least they won't be able to for a long time."

"Oh." Clementine said softly her shoulder hunching forward, as Mari continued to nuzzle against her neck.

Lunnesa took a step forward and said. "Don't worry like we said before we look out for you and we won't leave you alone."

Clementine perked up a little hearing that and Mari took to the air zipping around. He helped Clementine up, helped her carry her cloths down stairs, and helped her put them in her pack. With that done the two of them put their packs on, he grabbed his shotgun then he and Lunnesa lead the way out of the house. As they walked out of the side gate out onto the street Clementine kept a hold of his shirt with one hand, while he and Lunnesa scanned the street for danger, and Mari flew above their heads. While there were wrecks, random junk, and a few bodies spread out all over the place neither he or Lunnesa saw any signs of anyone else. They did see a few of the monsters wandering around farther down the street but it didn't seem like the monsters knew they were there.

_"So which house first?"_ He asked Lunnesa using their bond in order to keep things as quiet as possibly.

_"I think that house over there has the most promise right now."_ Lunnesa pointing out a house across the street and one house down from Clementine's and Mari's house.

He studied the house and he saw what she meant. The house was a two story house like most of the houses around, but instead of a solid wooden front door it had a glass front door with a fancy design. Even from this distance he could see that somebody had pushed furniture in front of the door and boarded up the windows. But he could also see the splashes of blood on the inside of the glass where it wasn't covered. It was obvious that someone had tried to hold out in the house and that they failed. But with the house secure it was less likely that somebody else would have already raided it for supplies.

[](https://imgur.com/S8XpecQ) *this is what the door looks like.

_"Looks promising."_ He said grimly setting a brisk pace towards the house. Already knowing that the front door was blocked he lead them straight to the gate at the side of the house. The gate was set into a regular wooden fence that went up to shoulder height on him. He leaned his head over the top of the gate to try and find the latch and he saw that somebody had attacked a second handle to the fence, and wrapped heavy gauge wire around the two handles effectively keeping the gate from being forced open. He was already thankful that he had grabbed some tools from the garage as he reached into the bag and pulled out a pair of wire cutters. As quick as he could he reached over the gate cut the wire and opened the gate for them.

As he closed the gate behind them Mari flew ahead to the edge of her's and Clementine's bond limit to peek around the corner of the house. Mari flitted back and whispered. "Lee a tree fell on the fence in the backyard. Their sliding door is broken and I saw a dead person."

"Was the dead person moving like one of the monsters?" He asked quietly.

Mari shook her tiny head. "No they're just laying there. But I heard the sounds of monsters coming from inside."

"Okay, thanks Mari." He said tipping his head to the little hummingbird then said. "Alright Clementine stay behind me and Lunnesa. And Mari be ready to distract some of the monsters if we tell you to. Just remember to fly high enough that they can't reach you." Both of them nodded Clementine moved so she was directly behind him but she was gripping her hammer tightly, and Mari flew over to hover next to Clementine's head. He looked down at Lunnesa and said privately. _"I'll go first,"_ Which earned him a nod from her.

He slowly walked around the corner of the house he saw exactly what Mari described. A large oak tree had fallen leaving a large hole in the fence and crushing a trampoline. And as he turned his attention to the back of the house he saw the body of what he thought was a teenage boy. But the body's face was facing away from him and a lot of the torso was chewed on so it was hard to tell. The body was laying on a pile of broken glass half in half out of a broken sliding glass door, and judging by the blood pooled around body the boy had died very recently. He had to strain his ears but he could hear shuffling and moaning coming from the broken door. He started slowly walking towards the door planning to peek his head around the corner to see how many of those things were inside. But he cringed at the loud musical pinking sound of breaking glass as he stepped on a large piece of glass. He hopped that the sound wasn't loud enough to draw the attention of the things inside the house. But that proved to be a mute point because at the sound the dead teenager picked his head up off the ground and looked in their direction. Almost all of the flesh and the eye on the right side of the boy's face were gone leaving mostly just a blood covered skull. The boy let out a moaning growl as he started slowly almost drunkenly stood up and took a step towards them.

He'd been frozen in shock at seeing the boy move even with damage done to him. But having the boy take a step towards them arms reaching out snapped him back to reality, his arms snapped up and he leveled his shotgun with the boy's head.

_"No wait."_ Lunnesa shouted in his head before he could pull the trigger.

_"What? Why?"_ He demanded refusing to take his eyes off the thing in front of him.

_"Remember the things that chased us through the woods. They were hell bent on breaking through the fence until they heard those gun shots then they left. If we start shooting we could bring the whole neighborhood down on us."_ Lunnesa argued quickly.

He muttered curses under his breath. She was right ofcouse she was, he'd already realized that these things were drawn by sound. His panic had almost put them all in even more danger. He quickly leaned the shotgun against the wall and pulled the blacksmiths hammer from his belt. He raised the hammer up over his head his heart pounding, as he let the boy walk closer to him it's arms raised and it's teeth biting the air as it moaned. His arms were longer then the boy's so while the boy's hands were still six inches from him he brought his hammer down. The blacksmiths hammer did better then the roofing hammer as the pointed end punched right through the boy's skull on the first swing. And since the pointed end of the blacksmiths isn't curved like the claw on the roofing hammer, when the boys body goes limp and collapses the hammer comes free on it's own. He was just about to say something about how that was easy when five more of the things shambled out of the house three men, a woman, and a teenage girl all. They all looked like they had been dead much longer then the boy.

"Mari!" Lunnesa barked.

"Got it." The little hummingbird daemon said as she shot forward from her spot next to Clementine's head towards the monsters.

"Don't be to loud." He said directing the comment to Mari hoping to keep her from making the mistake he almost made.

Mari zipped well out of arms reach of the monsters as she went over them. Once she was behind them she started constantly zipping back and forth across a one foot stretch of air while taunting the monsters. "Hey you poo brain! Yeah you, you smell worse then my daddy's gym socks! And you, you must be the captain of the poo parade because you smell worse then he does!" Doing this Mari managed to get two of the men and the teenage girl to stand below her and reach for her, but they succeeded at nothing but grabbing empty air two feet below her. 

Under different circumstances watching a baby hummingbird fly over a bunch of monsters throwing around grade school insults would be absolutely hilarious. But he didn't have time to be amused one of the men and the woman were still coming right for him, Clementine, and Lunnesa. The woman closed in first he swung his hammer and buried the pointed end in her temple causing her to go limp, and dragging his hammer down some before he pulled it free. The man was right behind her so he wasn't able to raise his arm for another swing before the man was on him. The monster grabbed the hand he was holding the hammer in by the wrist and grabbed his left shoulder. It was an instant struggle to keep himself from the monster's nashing teeth, because the monster had been just as big as him in life but with more muscle and a vice like grip. The only reason the monster hadn't immediately sank it's teeth into him was because he'd learned from wrestling with what was left of Clementine's babysitter. He jammed his left forearm up under the monster's jaw keeping it's head back as he tried to free his right hand so he could swing his hammer.

That struggle only lasted a few seconds before Lunnesa came up from came up from the side like a black and brown missile and slammed into the back of the monster's knee. The force that Lunnesa hit with and the uncoordinated nature of the monster forced the monster to lose it's grip and fall flat on it's face. He was thrown off balance for a few seconds at the sudden change, but he recovered quickly and slammed the pointed end of his hammer into the back of the monster's skull.

"Well that worked." Lunnesa said her voice a little shaky. He just nodded his head in response panting slightly. He looked over to where the last three monsters were still gabbing empty air under Mari while she called them names, and a plan started to form in his mind. Lunnesa followed his thoughts through their bond and said. "That...might just work."

"Yeah it might." He said more to himself then to Lunnesa. He took a few steps sideways so he'd be clear of the three bodies by his feet and called out. "Mari bring them over to me."

Mari immediately flew over too them, then behind him landing on the bill of Clementine's hat. But it didn't seem necessary because as soon as he spoke loud enough all three of the monsters looked at him and started towards him, with the two men in front of the teen. Following his plan Lunnesa moved behind him so he was the monster sole focus for now. As the first one reached him, he balanced on his injured leg and kicked out with the other hitting the monster on the side of the knee sending it sprawling. He righted himself and brought his hammer down in an overhanded swing burying it into the top of the second monster's skull. At the same time Lunnesa charged out from behind him and with a snarl launched herself pack and all into the air hitting the third monster square in the chest knocking it flat on it's back. He turned as the first monster recovered and tried to grab his ankle he quickly introduced it to his hammer. He turned back towards Lunnesa ready to take down the last monster but Lunnesa had clamped her jaw down on the monster's head. She was growling and shaking her head back and forth trying to break it's neck, not only did she mange to break it's neck but it's skull cracked and caved in under the force of her jaws.

Letting go of the body Lunnesa bared her teeth and shook her head as she worked her tongue in disgust. "Oh that is disgusting!" She whined and started wiping her muzzle on and licking the a clean patch of grass in an attempt to get rid of the taste.

He felt some pity for his daemon that is until he heard giggles and suppressed laughter coming from behind him. He looked behind himself and was surprised to see Mari was in a full blown giggle fit on Clementine's hat, and Clementine had a hand on her mouth obviously try not to laugh. He couldn't believe that they were able to find anything funny at a time like this. But then he looked back at Lunnesa and if he could ignore why she had a bad taste in her mouth her reaction really was pretty funny.

When Lunnesa heard his own chuckle she glared up at them and asked. "Oh so you three think this is funny?"

Clementine and Mari both nodded their heads and he can't help but say. "Well your reaction is pretty priceless."

The heat from Lunnesa glare went up a few degrees and said. "Well if that's how it is you can bite the next monster."

It was too easy. "No thanks I'm not a big mouth like you." He said getting a new round of giggles from Clementine and Mari. Lunnesa jerked her head back in shock and a little bit of hurt at what he just said. So he added privately. _"And that's me telling a joke that got more then a dry chuckle."_

Lunnesa narrowed her eyes at him and said. _"Ooh I'm so going to get you back for that one."_

He chuckled again but the moment of levity didn't last long as he looked back down at the six bodies laying on the ground around them. And with a small spark of panic he remembered exactly why Lunnesa had a bad taste in her mouth so he asked. "Are you sure that it's a good idea for you to be biting these things? I mean what if you can catch whatever is affecting them?"

Lunnesa cocked her head at him and raised an eyebrow but then she suddenly looked very serious and ask him. "Are you feeling alright?"

Completely confused by the question all he said was. "Yeah. Why?"

"Are you sure?" She asked again still staring at him worriedly. He tried to use their bond to see what she was thinking but found that she was blocking him. Because of how deep the bond between human and daemon they could always feel each others emotions. They could dull the pain they felt when the other was hurt but they couldn't block it all. But if they _really_ wanted too they could block their own private thoughts. He had just enough time to be shocked that she was blocking him before she added. "Because while we daemons are technically flesh and blood and therefore we can be hurt. But our bodies are made up of pure energy so we can't get sick we only feel sick when our human is sick, or did you forget that?"

"Oh right." He slowly having honestly forgotten that. He'd remembered that daemons didn't need food or water to survive but had forgotten that they couldn't get sick. He felt Lunnesa's worry increase as she saw that thought in his head so he tried to change the subject by saying. "Come on let's search the house for supplies."

They walked into the house through the broken sliding glass door and found the bodies of seven more monsters laying on the floor. Each of the monsters had their heads smashed in and he saw two crowbars, a tire iron, and a wooden baseball bat laying in large half dried pools of blood. The crowbars and tire iron were scattered around the dinning room, and the baseball was laying by the door near where the boy had been laying.

If he had too guess a group of monsters got into the backyard when tree crushed the fence. When they broke through the glass door the three men an the boy had put up a fight but were overwhelmed. The boy must have either panicked at the start or had tried to make a run for it when the three men started being pulled down. Either way the boy didn't make it far, and he expected to find two more pools of blood farther in the house where the woman and girl had fallen.

He lead Clementine and Mari into the kitchen (which is twice as big as the one in Clementine's house) dragging a chair with them. They all took off their packs and he showed Clementine the kinds of food that they wanted out of the pantry and how he wanted them split and place it all among the packs. He gave Mari instructions to keep watch on the backyard and for them to come get him and Lunnesa immediately if she saw any monsters. With that he and Lunnesa went to clear the rest of the house.

They walked into the living room and looked around. This living room was larger then Clementine's and it wasn't as trashed, but they found two more dead monsters and two more large pools of blood. They saw two open doors one was a bathroom and he could see a washing machine through the other. They didn't bother searching those just yet since they both agreed that if any monsters had been in there they would have come out with the others. They made their way up stairs, before the reached the top they heard more moans and a soft pounding sound. Following the sound they made their way slowly to the third door down from the staircase which was the only door open. Peeking around the door frame they saw what looked like a play room and two more monster pounding against the a thick blanket hanging on the far wall which he assumed had a window overlooking the backyard. Moving as quickly as they could without making any noise they crept towards the two monsters once they were in range he swung his hammer and killed one of the monsters. Then before the second monster could completely turn to face him Lunnesa headbutted the back of it's knee knocking it flat on it's back giving him an easy target.

But before they could start congratulating each other they realized that they could still hear soft moaning sounds coming from inside of the closet. The closet door was only half open so they couldn't see inside but they could see the large amount of blood soaked into the carpet and covering the door. They crept forward carefully he reached out grabbed the door knob yanked it open hammer raised, but all he could do was stand there frozen in horror. At the same time Lunnesa backed away her ears going flat and her tail tucking between her legs her voice full of her own horror as she said. "Oh my God."

There laying on the floor of the closet were two small hissing moaning things that use to be children a few years younger than Clementine. They'd been twin brothers if he had to guess, but there was so little of them left that they could barely move more than their mouths. But in some sort of sick and twisted cosmic joke while there was so little of them left their faces were completely untouched and unmarked other than a few small drops of blood.

The two dead children stared up at him and Lunnesa with milky white eyes moaning and biting the air. They squirmed as they tried and failed to move their arms and legs to get at him and Lunnesa. Slowly he lowered his hammer and took several steps backed from the grotesque sight right in front of him. Seeing just how torn up all of the other monsters were was bad enough but this was too much for him. He couldn't do it he couldn't bury his hammer into what was left of these children, he couldn't explain why even too himself other than that it was too much.

"What!?" Lunnesa demanded in a mix of shock and horror. "We can't just leave them like this!"

"Can you do it?" He demanded right back his eyes starting to burn both for what happened to these children and no small amount of shame. Lunnesa jerked back like she'd been burned then she looked back at what was left of the children. Lunnesa choked back a sob as she looked down at the ground and backed away shaking her head. He closed the closet door and the two of them left the play room as fast as they could with him closing the door firmly behind them.

They both stopped in the hallway taking a moment to try and get control on their emotions. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose taking a few deep breaths and trying in vain to erase the image of the children from his mind. When he couldn't he just did his best to push the image and the emotions that went with it to the back of his mind until he had the time to deal with them. As he did that he could feel Lunnesa going through her own process of doing the same.

When that moment was over they quickly searched the remaining rooms. They didn't find much but he did find a couple of changes of clothes for himself, a bundle of Paracord, and a brand new prescription of amoxicillin with 250 capsules 500mg each. Finding the antibiotics was a win he wanted to take some to prevent an infection from setting into his leg wound but he didn't know the proper dosage. So he just pocketed the medicine. Then he took the Paracord and used it to make a make-shift sling for his shotgun, so he could hang it from his shoulder instead of constantly picking it up and putting it down.

With all of that done he and Lunnesa headed back down stairs his shotgun slung over his shoulder and a bundle of clothes held under one arm. They checked the down stairs bathroom but the only useful thing was a bottle of Ibuprofen. After that they went into the laundry room and they were surprised at what they found.

There was a make-shift bed made from towels and blankets, and a number of empty food cans in a bucket by the door. Somebody had been living in this room but they figured that it must have just been one of the dead people they'd put down outside. He went to start searching the shelves and boxes but he stopped when the writing on the wall drew his attention.

**It's been three days since people started turning into monsters and killing each other. And two days since a tree fell and destroyed the fence in the backyard. We tried to fight them off when they broke through the back door. But there were too many of them dad, uncle Jim, and Becky's dad were all killed. Me, mom, and Becky tried to make it up stairs but there were too many of the things. I killed two more of those things but more got my mom and Becky and stopped me from getting to the stairs. So me and Gairity were forced to hide here in the laundry room. I could hear it when some of those things broke into Zack's and Tommy's play room, I could hear them screaming.**

. Because of the wording he was pretty sure that the boy had been the one who had written all of this. All the writing was in bright red paint and it looked like the boy had used his fingers the write it all. The writing started off mostly neat but as it went on the letters got more and more erratic until the last few words were barely legible almost like the boy's hand started shaking as he wrote. There was more writing a little lower on the wall only now it was neat and legible again.

**I'm writing this because I'm out of food in here and I'm pretty sure mom, dad, Becky, her dad, and uncle Jim are the only monsters left in the house. So me and Gairity are going to make a run for it and we want some kind of record of what happened just incase. We're just going to try and push past them because I can't kill them their my family.**

**Signed. Jackson & Gairity Svencen **

Reading that didn't help their mood any he actually found himself staring at where the boy had signed his and his daemon's names. After a few seconds his stomach dropped as he noticed that in some spots of the signature the paint still looked shiny.

Lunnesa backed away from the wall like it would bite them shaking her head saying. "No, no, no, no."

He slowly reached out a hand and pressed a finger against one of the thicker blobs of paint. The outer skin was dry and tacky but when he put pressure on it the outer skin broke and he was able to smear the paint. His breathing picked up as he looked around looking for the paint the boy had used. When he spotted a tube of red paint on the floor he snatched it up and flipped it over to read the instructions hoping that it was a type of paint that took several hours to dry.

The tube said that the paint would dry in 45-60 minutes. They'd only been in this house for ten maybe fifteen minutes that meant that the boy had been alive when they arrived at Clementine's house. That also meant that while they were taking their time packing up the supplies at Clementine's house, that boy and his daemon had been fighting for their lives. They had done that because since they were taking Clementine and Mari with them they weren't going back to the house. If they had chosen to have Clementine and Mari stay behind then he and Lunnesa would have waited to scavenge Clementine's house until the end, they would have just grabbed their packs and gone. And they would have been here to help Jackson and his daemon, they could have saved them.

It only took a second for him to realize that. He dropped the tube, bring a hand up to cover his mouth, as he bent forward feeling like he was just punched in the gut. Because of their choice they indirectly signed the death warrant for the boy and his daemon.

Lunnesa swung her paw hitting the bucket filled with empty cans making it slam into the wall sending cans flying. A split second later Lunnesa threw her head back and screamed. "AHHHHH!" Into that scream she poured all of their combined pain and rage. Their pain was was because of what happened to the children in this house, all the pain and fear they had felt before the end. Their rage was directed not only to the monsters everywhere but at the world as a whole for all of this insanity where their choices to protect one innocent child lead to the death of another child.

They had managed to keep control of themselves earlier but not this time as soon as her scream ended Lunnesa broke down and started openly sobbing and he had a few tears running down his face. He heard the sound of running feet and two seconds later Clementine came running as fast as she could into the living room, looking scared and gripping her hammer for dear life with Mari flying right next to her head. Mari was the first one to spot him through the laundry room door and Clementine was quick to zero in on them. Clementine and Mari could clearly see him and while they couldn't see Lunnesa from where they were he had no doubt that they could hear her.

Clementine gave him a terrified look and asked with the kind of speed that only a child could manage. "Are you alright!? Is Lunnesa alright!? Are there more of the monsters in here!?"

He took a quick deep breath then raised his hand in a calming gesture and tried to be a reassuring as he could be. "No there aren't any monsters. Me and Lunnesa are okay but some stuff fell off of a shelf and landed on Lunnesa. It hurt but we're okay, but we need you to keep gathering the food in the kitchen and Mari needs to keep watching the backyard just incase the noise got the attention of some monsters."

Clementine hesitated and looked like she wanted to ask more questions but Mari grabbed a lock of Clementine's hair and started to gently pull her away. Clementine glanced between him and Mari for a second then she slowly let Mari lead her away. 

With that taken care of he went down to his knees and pulled Lunnesa into his lap hugging her. Lunnesa laid her lupine head on his shoulder as she continued to openly sob and a few more silent tears ran down his face as he held her.

(authors note: Some times the safest choice is the best for everyone. But some time the riskier and more uncomfortable choice saves more lives in the long run. 😈 )

It had always been like this him and Lunnesa were usually always very calm and collected, they never had a problem with their showing emotions they'd just always been naturally calm. He was willing to let a few tears fall, let his emotions show on his face, and clearly voice what he felt and/or thought. But he preferred to try his best to deal with the worst of it in his own head without any overly large show of emotion or major dramatics. But Lunnesa had always been the far more emotional one out of the two of them. Even when they were in high school Lunnesa had been prone to literally jumping with joy, run in circles when she was excited, and while neither of them were particularly quick to anger she never hesitated to bare her teeth when they did get mad. She had mellowed out as they got older but there was only so much she could handle before she _had_ to express herself and let her emotions out.

It took a good five minutes before Lunnesa cried herself out and a few more minutes after that before she felt calm enough for them to get back to it. They left the laundry room without even bothering to search it for anything useful. There were a few monsters banging on the front of the house obviously draw by the noise they'd made, but the front door and window were reinforced enough they didn't worry about it instead they went back to the kitchen. When they entered Clementine and Mari gave them worried looks and Clementine asked Lunnesa if she was okay, Lunnesa did her best to smile and said she was okay. With that he helped Clementine to finish clearing the kitchen of non perishables and look for anything else that was useful. Once they had everything packed he and Lunnesa lead the way out the back door and out through the fence both of them still felt very miserable but they were happy to get away from that house.

They ran into several more of the monster as they continued to scavenge more houses, although only one or two at a time. They scavenged six more houses always making their way through backyards avoiding the streets. Most of what they got was more none perishable food items but they did find close to a dozen lighters, a few cigarette lighters and a few of the longer lighter used for barbecues. With their packs full he made sure that their packs were secure and did a last minute check that they had everything before they started their treck to Macon. But two sudden and loud pops sounded from out on the street. Lunnesa immediately dropped to her belly while he crouched down behind a couch dragging Clementine and Mari with him. There was silence for a few seconds then there was shouting and a another shot.

"Whoever they are they're not shooting at us." Lunnesa whispered crawling over to him. There was several more shots only these ones sounded different from the first three. "And it sounds like whoever they're shooting at is shooting back."

"I can look out the window and see who's out there." Mari whispered hovering right by his head.

"What!?" He demanded quietly. "No!?"

"But I'm small. They won't see me." Mari argued.

"It too risky." Lunnesa said back.

Mari glared at them with an angry pout on her tiny face, then she stuck her tongue out at them and quick as a flash zipped towards the window. Clementine only glance up at him and hesitantly said. "S-sorry." He looked over the couch and saw that Mari had landed on the window seal and was slowly peeking her head around the curtain. He'd just decided that given the circumstances he'd run out there grab the reckless little hummingbird and get her back to safety. But Clementine suddenly grabbed his arm he looked down at her and saw that her eyes had the slightly unfocused look of someone looking through their daemon's eyes. "Lee there's people outside and one of them is a police officer."

"Really?" He asked and Clementine nodded. He looked at the window for a second but he need more information before he could make decision so he looked down at Clementine and asked. "How many are out there and what are they doing?"

"The police officer is hiding behind his car. There's two more people hiding behind a truck I think the police officer is helping them because his daemon is with them. There are two more people farther down the street one of them he looks funny and has a bat I think, and the other she has a gun and is shooting at the police officer." Clementine said sounding

_"Sounds like a few desperate people fighting another small group of people."_ He said privately to Lunnesa.

_"Yeah, but how desperate do you have to be to challenge a cop to a gun fight?"_ Lunnesa asked.

_"I don't know. But this could work in our favor."_ He said thinking it over. _"If we help them we could at the very least get a ride."_

 _"You do realize that, that plan means we might have to help kill the people attackimg them right?"_ Lunnesa asked seriously.

_"Not necessarily. Their probably just desperate and will back off with another gun being aimed at them."_ He argued hoping he was right.

_"And what if their desperate enough to keep trying to fight even with us joining in. Or what if they have a grudge against the officer or one of the others and their using the current situation to even the score?"_ Lunnesa argued back. _"I know you not naïve enough to believe that with everything going on there aren't people out there taking advantage of it. So they can do **whatever** they want no matter what it is. They don't know we're here so waiting here for them to leave is probably the safest thing we could do right now. If we go out there and they don't just back off killing them might be the only the two of us and both Clementine and Mari will get out alive. Killing that senator was an accident. This would be completely different could you do it?"_

Lunnesa stared at him seriously the whole time she said that. For the second time that day Lunnesa was blocking him from her thoughts, and while she couldn't block her emotions from him she did her best to keep her emotions neutral. It didn't matter much she was his daemon he knew how her mind worked so he knew where she'd stand on this choice. He thought about it and answered her the way he had when they found the children in the first house. _"Could you?"_ Then he added. _"And could you sit here and let someone else die because of us for the second time today?"_

Lunnesa's eyes hardened and she briefly bared her teeth. It was enough of an answer for both of them.

He turned his attention to Clementine and said. "Me and Lunnesa are going to try and help the police officers and the people their helping. We'll handle this the same as when we fight the monsters you and Mari will stay right behind me and Lunnesa unless we say otherwise, alright?" Clementine nodded as Mari came back and landed on her shoulder. He gave Mari disappointed look causing the daemon to lower her head a little and decided to have a few words with her when they were safe.

As he unslung his shotgun from his shoulder he headed for the front door of the house Lunnesa sticking close to his side. He slowly and carefully opened the door thankfully the front door was set into the house which meant they had a four foot section of wall hiding them from sight of the people attacking the officer and his group. He could see the officer who was a black man a little older then himself crouched behind his cruiser about twenty yards infront of them parked half way on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. He did a quick peek around the corner and saw two men both white, one skinny with a sheepdog daemon, one slightly heavier set with an armadillo daemon, and a third daemon a german shepard wearing a blue vest with a Georgia State Patrol badge stitched into the side hiding behind a blue pick up truck twenty yards down the road. And another fifteen yards from them he saw a woman with blond hair wearing a grey hoody behind a crashed SUV holding what looked like a pink .22 compact pistol, with what he assumed was some kind of sound suppressor. And half way between the woman and the men behind the truck was a big burly man wearing a full set of Umpire pads, carrying a lead weighted fishing club, and his daemon a large razor back boar was wearing a full set of pads as well.

*This is what Shawn's daemon looks like.

*This is Umpire's pads, the guys boar daemon would be wearing something similar.

[](https://imgur.com/ddJN3oc)*This is the fishing club it's usually used to kill large sports fish like swordfish.

*Standard .22 compact pistol with eight round magazine.

Seeing all of that he pulled back behind the wall were only the officer could see him and started waving one of his arms trying to get the attention of the officer. It took a few moments but the officer must have caught the movement out of the corner of his because the officer glanced his way then did a double take half raising his pistol at him. He quickly held up his hand in a placating gesture then as quickly and clearly as he could he gestured firing his shotgun down the road. Then he tried his best to gesture that the two guys could fall back towards the officer putting distance between them and their attackers. He felt completely ridiculous as he was basically playing a game of charades with a police officer while someone was shooting at him. But apparently he did just good enough of a job that the officer understood what he was trying to say because the officer nodded and turned his attention back towards the attackers.

He crouched down and turned his attention to Clementine and Mari just long enough to say. "I want you two to stay behind me and up against the wall. If me and Lunnesa have to run out to help the people behind the truck I want you to run as fast as you can over to that officer and stay with him. Alright?" Both Clementine and Mari looked slightly terrified but they nodded.

With that he stood back up spun towards the end of the wall and aimed his shotgun down the street just in time to see the burly guy move. He used a small car as a shield from the officer as he made his way towards where the two men were hiding. But from this angle the car didn't protect the man from him, however he didn't want to kill anyone if he could help it so he aimed infront of the man and his daemon and fired. He had been aiming for the front passenger side door but it had been so long since he'd fired a gun that he nearly took the man's daemon's head off and ended up hitting the front tire instead of the door causing the tire to explode. He heard Clementine squeak in fear as both the man and his daemon yelled and cursed as they back peddled and hid behind a over turned mail truck. Cringing slightly at the unintentional near miss he slid the pump action and aimed towards the woman and fired again making her duck down as the buck shot peppered the door facing him and shattering two of the side windows.

The officers daemon must have relaid the message because as soon as he fired the second shot the skinnier man and his daemon ran for the officers patrol car. The heavier set man didn't move but it was apparent that both of the men were suppose to run because the officers daemon stopped halfway to the cruiser looked around then ran back to the man. The gunshots were drawing in monsters so even though the german shepard yelled at him and got him and his daemon moving his window to escape had closed. The heavier set man didn't get more than ten feet before one of the monsters lunged at him, grabbed him, and pinned him against the fence of the house next door with a second one closing in close behind. Both the officer and the woman were distracted with their own groups of monsters. And the officer's daemon was prevented from helping because she was charged by the burly man's daemon while the burly man was facing off with three of his own monsters.

"Shit." He growled taking all of that in, in less than a second.

"Go now." He heard Lunnesa say to Clementine and Mari even as they ran towards the where the heavier set man and the officer's daemon were being attacked.

They didn't make it more than half way before he heard Clementine scream. He spun on the spot and saw two more monsters closing in on Clementine and Mari. His heart jumped into his throat and he and Lunnesa were about to run to them instead. But to their surprise Clementine didn't freeze and crawled under a car and out to the other side dodging one of the monsters, meanwhile Mari took to the air distracting the second. It was abundantly clear that the two of them would be more then capable of dodging the monsters long enough to get to the officer.

They returned their attention back towards the heavier set man and the officer's daemon. He ran forward holding his shotgun out in front of him and slammed into the monster using the shotgun to knock it to the ground. Then he quickly aimed at the second monster and shot it point blank completely removing it's head, before stomping on the head of the monster he'd knocked over. He ducked and yanked the heavier set man back behind the truck as the whizzing pop sound of bullets past over their heads.

Meanwhile

Lunnesa's POV

She charged at the boar daemon running at full speed the boar had seen her coming, and hit the officer's german shepard daemon hard enough to send her flying a few feet before turning to face her bracing to face her charge. On top of having the naturally large size and large amount of muscle of a female razor back boar she like her human she was also dressed in thickly padded umpire gear. It was specially designed for daemons of her size complete with a wire cage mask protecting her her whole head.

Unfortunately for the boar all her bared teeth and snarling was for show because she had no intentions of leaping onto the boar like the german shepard had, instead at the last second she ducked and turned her head away. The wire cage protecting the boars head was meant to stop baseballs so there were gaps more then big enough for the metal frame of her pack to fit through. Just as she'd planned the corner of the metal frame went straight into of the wire cage slamming into the boars face. Her forward momentum came to a sudden stop as she felt her pack jerk backwards she heard a wet crack and at the same time both the boar and the boar's human screamed in pain. The boar immediately started thrashing it's head in all directions screaming in agony during this one of the boar's tusk cut into her side. But while the cut was minor the boar's tusk had also caught the metal frame of her pack jerking it up and causing her to flip onto her side.

Now that there was some distance between her and the boar she could see the damage she'd done. The metal frame had hit the boar right in her right eye, both the eye and the eye socket had been completely crushed. Some how even through the pain the boar rallied and glared down at her with it's one good eye. And she was suddenly very aware that her belly was completely exposed to the boars razor sharp tusks and her pack kept her from getting back to her feet fast enough to get away. Thankfully before the boar could gore her the officer's german shepard daemon ran up behind the boar and sank her teeth into the boar's hind left leg. The boar screamed again and spun on the spot trying to ram the officer's daemon again, but the officer's daemon moved with the boar stay directly behind it. That bought her enough time to scramble her way back up even with her pack dragging her down. Once she was up she launched herself at the boar's right side. Her weight combined with the weight of her pack and the boars already injured left hind leg the boar collapsed down on her left side.

The boars blind pain fill rage instantly turned to shear panic and she started yelling. "Eddy! Eddy help!"

The officer's daemon wasted no time and ran up and clamped her jaws down on the boar's throat. The boar was large enough that there was enough room for her to clamp her own jaws on it's throat right below where the officers daemon had bitten down both of them started pulling and shaking their heads. She was vaguely aware of a male voice yelling. "Eirabella!" And she heard several more gun shots but she paid it all no mind and concentrated on tearing the boar's throat out.

Lee's POV

Almost as soon as he got himself and the heavier set man behind the truck he felt a new line of pain on his side. He looked around the corner of the truck and his heart jumped into his throat seeing Lunnesa was laying on her side the the boar standing over her blood running down it's face. Thankfully the officer's daemon intervened. They weren't more then fifteen feet infront of him but he couldn't risk running to help them because he'd get shot and he couldn't shot because all three daemons were so close together.

Luckily it didn't look like his help was needed Lunnesa and the officer's daemon working together was too much for the boar. The boar yelled for help just before both canines bit down on it's throat, unfortunately that was the exact moment that the man in the umpire's gear killed his last monster and turned towards the daemons.

"Eirabella!" The man yelled pain and panic clear in his voice as he ran forward fishing club raised to save his daemon. 

He rose up bring his shotgun up with him aiming for the man's legs but before he had the chance to fire he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He dropped back down out of instinct as the woman fired a few more rounds at him. Luckily the he wasn't alone because he heard the officer fire two more rounds from behind him and he saw both rounds catch the man on the right side of his chest. The man spun off to the side from the force of the bullet impacts hitting the ground gasping for air. But the man wasn't left to struggle for long because a second later both Lunnesa and the officer's daemon jerked their heads back each holding their own section of the boars throat in their mouths. Within seconds both the man and the boar stopped moving and the boar's body started quickly dissolving into golden dust.

"No!" The woman yelled and turned her gun on Lunnesa and the officer's daemon.

He quickly raised back up and fired before she had a chance to fire. He hit her full in the shoulder but he saw a distinct puff of golden dust where he hit meaning the woman must have had a small daemon, and he just pulverized it without meaning too. The woman spun and fell like a puppet that had it's strings cut.

Trying not to think too much on what he just did he reached down and helped the heavier set man up to his feet and asked. "Are you alright?" All he got in response was a nervous and shell shocked nod.

"Lee!" He heard Clementine yell from behind him he turned just in time for Clementine to slam into him wrapping her arms around his stomach. To his surprise Mari landed on his shoulder and nuzzled against his neck for a moment before she zipped over to hover by Lunnesa's to ask her if she was alright.

The skinnier guy with the sheep dog daemon ran up and hugged the heavier set guy, before turning to him and saying. "Thank you man. If you hadn't shown up one of us would have been killed." 

"Uh...no problem." He said unsure of the proper response to that. He turned his attention over to the officer who was still standing by his cruiser his daemon having returned to his side. Both the officer and his daemon were staring at them suspiciously. He had just enough time to wonder if the officer was going to arrest him even given the current situation when he saw movement be hind the officer, a lot of movement. "Behind you!" He yelled. The officer spun and saw dozens of monsters coming down the street right towards them. 

He spun and looked farther down the opposite end of the street and saw dozens more coming in from that direction to. "We're trapped." Lunnesa growled.

"We need to get in my truck now." The skinnier guy said quickly to him, then to the officer he added. "Andre get into your cruiser we can force our way through."

The officer 'Andre' came over and joined all of them his pistol at the ready shaking his head. "No there's too many of them we'd total the vehicles before we made it."

He looked around for a moment then yelled. "The house! Everyone get into the house we can barricade the door!" Officer Andre nodded at him and lead the way as everyone started running for the house. He'd only ran a few steps before he stopped and turned towards the bodies of their two attackers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PLEASE if you read leave a vote in the comments

**Choice 1:** Your attackers each have useful gear that could help you survive. But walkers are closing in and you only have time to take one.

**A.** A small gun for a small girl. Run to the woman's body and take her .22 pistol, it's small enough for Clementine to use easily. And even has a sound suppressor so Lee can teach her to use it before they leave for Hershel's farm. (Choosing this may open new future options or make certain future options safer/not choosing this may remove future options or make future options more dangerous)

**B.** Protection with only a couple of holes. Run to the man's body and drag it into the house so Lee can take his armor. (PS they'll all leave before the guy reanimates) The biggest risk in the zombie apocalypse is getting bitten the Umpire gear won't stop bullets but it'll give Lee protection from walker bites. (Choosing this may open new future options or make certain future options safer/not choosing this may remove future options or make future options more dangerous)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now that we have more Characters I'm introducing the reputation system.

 **0** :Mortal Enemy, **1** , **2** :Hated, **3** , **4** :Not Trusted, **5** , **6** :Disliked, **7** , **8** :Neutral, **9** , **10** :Liked, **11** , **12** :Trusted, **13** , **14** :Loyal, **15** , **16** :Lover/Family

 **Mortal Enemy:** This character will do anything to hurt or kill you

 **Hated:** This character will actively oppose and/or attack you

 **Not Trusted:** You have proven to be untrustworthy in this characters eye's they're won't listen/believe you and are unlikely to back you up

 **Disliked:** This character has an obvious dislike for you and question your motives and reasons but there is still a good chance they'll listen to/help you

 **Neutral:** This character is completely neutral to you

 **Liked:** This character likes you their more likely listen to/help you but might back out if it's too dangerous

 **Trusted:** You have proven trust worthy in this character's eyes they'll believe your words before others and are likely to back you up in dangerous situations

 **Loyal:** You have earned this characters loyalty they are likely to take your side and back you up in almost any situation

 **Lover/Family:** This character sees you as family/a lover (depends if romance option is given/taken) this creates a nearly unbreakable bond between you and this character. This character will follow you through hell and/or go through hell for you.

**Lee's &Lunnesa's Relationship status with:**

**Clementine &Mari:** 12/16 Trusted: Your a stranger and you took their dad's tools. But you promised to stay with them no matter what and have been protecting them from walkers

**Shawn &Sillean:** 12/16 Trusted: They don't know who you are but you charged in and help save them and defiantly saved Chet and Que

**Chet &Que:** 13/16 Trusted: They don't know who you are but you saved their lives

**Officer Andre Mitchell &Rem:** 7/16 Disliked: They suspect who you are and what you've done but Lee saved Chet and Lunnesa helped Rem

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you have ideas for OCs and you want me to hold off using them until we get to season 2 or later. That's fine by all means submit them, just specify which season you want me to wait and use them for. And if you want to wait that's fine because I'll be accepting new OC submission during the first episode of each season. This means I'll be accepting OC submissions for this season until the pharmacy is overrun and the group moves into the Motor Inn. And then submissions will open back up when we reach the point of Clementine getting close to meeting the Cabin group. Be warned there is no guarantee that any characters other then Clem, Christa, Kenny, And Lilly will survive season 1.

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Gender & Race:**

**Daemon's name & form(s): **Daemons aren't typically give typical human names like John, Paul, or Becky they're typically given names like Maximus, Lunnesa, Pollen, Mari, Talion things like that. If you don't add a name for your character's daemon I'll come up with one. (if your character is under the age of 18 and unsettle list the daemons four or five favorite forms)

 **Positive traits:** at least 3 for both the human and their daemon Examples: loyal, always level headed, caring, always has a sense of humor, ect. (please specify which traits belong to the human and which belong to the daemon they can have as many trait in common as you like but daemons _are not_ mirror images of their humans and they _do not_ act exactly the same as their humans they are reflections of that persons soul or inner most personality but they also have their own unique personality)

 **Negative traits:** at least 3 for both the human and their daemon Examples: short tempered, trust issues, drinking problems, doesn't play nice with others, ect. (please specify which traits belong to the human and which belong to the daemon they can have as many trait in common as you like but daemons _are not_ mirror images of their humans and they _do not_ act exactly the same as their humans they are reflections of that persons soul or inner most personality but they also have their own unique personality)

 **Skills no more then 3:** Examples: martial arts training, military training, playing the guitar, singing, ect. **(Don't underestimate the smaller skills and talents some times the most _meaningful_ characters aren't the ones who kick ass like John Wicked or doge bullets like an anime character)**

 **Description:** Give a brief description of the kind of person your character and their daemons are, give their back story where they're from, what their family's like, their former job, and if it applies how and why they got certain personality traits or skills.

Just a heads up there is a chance that I might have to tweak your character slightly for the story if that happens I will inform you and you will still get credit for the character. Here's an example: Let's say you submitted a character who is a school teacher that spent the first few weeks of the out break protecting a schoolbus full of kids until he was separated from them by a herd of walkers and has been on his own ever since. I might change that to a school teacher who was forcefully drafted into the national guard at the start of the out break to fight the walkers but saw the writing on the wall and deserted first chance he had to protect his student. Or maybe you've submitted a great character that I really want to use but they seem to be a little OP I might balance it out by say they lost an eye or were a kung fu master until they took an arrow to the knee. Hell it might just be a simple as your character being married to somebody else's character. There will be no major rewrites just small changes.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to start listing all of the characters daemons and what form they take at the beginning of each chapter just to make it easier to remember what each daemon looks like.
> 
> *Lee's daemon Lunnesa is a female brown and black furred Iberian wolf with silver eyes.  
> *Clementine's daemon Mari is female and unsettled favorite forms rabbit, hummingbird, squirrel, and dove.  
> *Officer Mitchell's daemon Rem is a female german shepard.  
> *Shawn's daemon Sillean is a female sheltlands sheepdog  
> *Chet's daemon Que is a female armadillo.

Hey everybody here's the next chapter the votes from the last chapter stand at:

**Choice 1:** 2 vote for A get the .22 for Clementine

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This means people are talking out loud"

_"This means a person and their daemon are speaking privately mind to mind"_

"This will be used for when someone is speaking through electronics like radios or walkie talkies"

Lee's POV

As seeing the opportunity to get another gun he ran towards the woman's body.

"What are you doing!?" Lunnesa shouted at him.

He didn't answer her knowing that she'd get the gist from his thoughts and instead concentrated on keeping an eye on the monsters getting closer to the woman's body. Luckily these things weren't very fast so he had the time to get too the woman's body grab the gun, grab her small backpack, and check her pockets for more bullets. By the time he was done and he stood back up the closest monster to him was still eight feet away. Close enough to make him nervous but still well out of arms reach.

"There you have the gun can get into the house now?" Lunnesa asked snappishly. "You know before we get _eaten!_ "

Not needing any more encouragement he ran as fast as he could towards the house. Thankfully officer Andre and his daemon were standing in the open door waiting for them. Officer Andre shot him a questioning glare as he ran towards him but then the officer's eye's dropped and saw the .22 gripped tightly in his hand. He couldn't get a good read on the officer's reaction to seeing that he went back for the gun, because as soon as Lunnesa cleared the door frame he slammed the door and locked it. Then he, officer Andre, and the two other men pushed the couch in front of the door and pushed two bookshelves in front of the living room window. There was a tense few minutes were he kept his shotgun leveled at the window, and officer Andre held his pistol in a two handed grip pointed at the door as the first of the monsters started pounding on the front of the house. They only relaxed and breathed sighs of relief when it became obvious that the monsters were going to be able to force their way in.

"Dude why did you run back out there like that?" The skinnier man asked still huffing from moving the furniture.

"To get this." He answered holding the .22 up with one hand even as he hugged Clementine with his other arm as she clung to his waist.

"Why?" The skinnier man's daemon asked her tone making it clear that she thought that he was crazy. Which unfortunately was an attitude that Lunnesa was currently agreeing with.

"Because with the current situation we need every advantage we can get." Officer Andre answered while giving him an approving nod.

"Yeah well...thank you two very much for jumping in like that. I doubt that all of us would have made it out of that if you hadn't." The skinnier man said, then he gesturing to Clementine and added. "I mean it, thank you. Especially since it put your daughter at risk too."

He blinked in surprise but quickly recovered and said. "Oh I'm not her dad. I'm just some guy, I was running from some more of those things and found them alone hiding in their tree house."

That took all three of the other men and their daemons by surprise. "Wait, their alone?" The skinnier man asked his voice filled with shock.

"What happened to their parents?" Officer Andre asked suddenly in full suspicious cop mode.

"Our parents are in Savanna." Mari answered. She was currently a baby squirrel and was perched on Lunnesa's head. "They left us with Sandra and Doma."

"Sandra was their babysitter." He clarified seeing the officer's confusion. "We went to their house looking for help from what we saw a couple of those things got inside. Their babysitter put up a fight and killed the monsters with a bookshelf, but she got a dozen bites all over her body in the process. And before she turned into one of those things she had these two hide in their tree house."

"Geez. That's rough." The skinnier guy said softly. They were all quiet for a few moments then the skinnier guy suddenly jerked like he remembered something then said. "Oh I'm Shawn by the way and this is Sillean. This is Chet and Que. And over there is Andre and Rem."

"Officer Mitchell." The officer corrected immediately.

"I'm Lee and this is Lunnesa. And these two are Clementine and Mari." He answered in kind.

Shawn started saying "Hey before we ran into Andre-"

"Officer Mitchell." Officer Mitchell corrected again.

Shawn kept going like the officer hadn't said anything. "-and those crazies tried to steal my truck the four of us-" Shawn gestured at himself, his daemon Sillean, Chet, and his daemon Que. "-were heading and away from the city to my family's farm. Things are just getting way too bad here with all of those things. And we'd be more then willing to give you a ride if you want."

"And how exactly do you plan to get us back to our vehicles with all of those things outside?" Officer Mitchell's daemon Rem asked.

Shawn was quiet for a few seconds seeming stumped but Lunnesa came to his rescue and said. "Actually that shouldn't be too hard. From what we've been able to tell these things seem to be drawn by either sound or movement and aren't all that smart. They don't seem capable of tracking more then one sound or movement at a time. Even if someone is a short distance from them if another noise or movement draws their attention they'll go after that like the person never existed, and if they don't have anything to chase they just seem to wander around. So as long as we're quite and don't make any big movements in front of the windows they'll probably end up chasing a plastic bag down the street, or at the very least wander far enough away to let us get to your vehicles with very little risk."

"And how long do you think it will take for them to wander off." Officer Mitchell asked.

Lunnesa shrugged her lupine shoulders. "Not a clue. I say we wait a couple of hours and when it's dark enough and if it's clear we go. If not we wait until morning at least if we have to wait we'll have plenty of light."

Officer Mitchell held eye contact with his daemon for a couple of minutes, then Officer Mitchell nodded and looked back at him and said. "Sounds as good of a plan as any."

Things were quite for twenty or thirty minutes in which they all just sat and relaxed. During this time he went through the woman's backpack and counted the bullets for the .22. There wasn't much in the backpack a set of clothes, a bottle of water, a few bags of trail mix, a couple cans of food, and a cigarette lighter. He put the few supplies into his pack, as for the .22 it only had two magazines and a little over a hundred bullets. It may have sounded like a lot but he knew that it wasn't as much as it sounded, that it would go pretty quickly especially with target practice. And he would have to do target practice since he'd never used a handgun before the only guns he had experience with were shotguns and hunting rifles.

He loaded the two magazines, then he loaded one of the magazines into the .22 popping a bullet into the chamber as he stood. He walked over to officer Mitchell where he was siting against with his daemon Rem laying on the floor. "I was wondering if you would be able to give me some pointers on how to handle this." He asked holding up the .22.

Officer Mitchell raised an eyebrow at him and asked. "Why you seem to know how to shoot pretty well. If your asking me how to shoot to kill when you have too instead of shooting to wound or purposely missing like you were earlier I can't help you with that."

That made him stop for a second and actually wonder how the officer knew that he was purposely avoided kill shot and wasn't just a terrible shot. "Umm...no I've never fired a handgun before the only guns I have experience with are shotguns and hunting rifles. I'm pretty sure that shooting a handguns is pretty different."

Officer Mitchell nodded his head then shrugged saying. "If you know how to shoot rifles and shotguns then you know how to shoot handguns it'll just be a matter of getting use to it. Aiming is more or less the same no matter what kind of gun your using, unless your using a scope ofcourse. Other then that just make sure that you hold it in a two handed grip whenever possible since it will help keep the gun more stable there by making you more accurate."

Then Rem lifted her head up off her paws and added. "And remember most handguns only have a maximum effective rage of fifty yards, and even then unless you get really good your more likely to miss. Beyond fifty yards you'll actually have better luck just throwing the gun at your target."

"Alright thank you." He said nodding then went towards the kitchen planning to just pick a section of wall and fire a magazine into it to get a feel for the gun.

"What your not planning on shooting that now are you?" Shawn asked sounding worried. "I thought the whole point was for us to be quiet not drawing more of those things with more gun shots."

"It has a sound suppressor, and this house is made of brick unless any of those things are right outside the door they most likely won't hear a thing." Officer Mitchell said before he could respond to Shawn.

Nodding his thanks to officer Mitchell he went into kitchen found a marker in a junk draw and drew a rough four ring target on a wall in the dining room before backing up twenty feet or so then took aim and fired. The gun made a nifty little _'p_ _ff'_ sound not much louder then a soft hand clap. His first two shots didn't even come close to the target but he started to get a feel for the gun. As he did he could hear his grandfather instructing him how to properly fire a rifle he was surprised to find that all he had to do was change the instructions slightly to apply it to the handgun. He didn't get a bullseye by the time he fired all eight bullets in the magazine the last three were closely grouped in the ring just outside of the bullseye.

"Wow your getting good." He heard Mari say somewhere off to his right.

He turned and saw Clementine standing in the doorway leading to the living room with Mari (who was still a baby squirrel) perched on her shoulder. He gave her a smile as he swapped out the magazine and said. "Yeah well I'm only this good because my grandpa taught me how."

"Really?" Clementine asked clasping her hands in front of her, her expression one of innocent curiosity the kind only a child could manage. "Was he a soldier or a police man?"

He and Lunnesa chuckled at the thought of their grandfather wearing any uniform other than the suit he always wore when he ran the Pharmacy before he retired. "No my grandpa just really like to hunt and he like to drag me, Lunnesa, and our brother with him whether we wanted to go or not."

Now Clementine looked confused her brow furrowing and bit her lip, Mari cocked her head to the side and asked. "Why? Was he mean?"

Lunnesa laughed and shook her head. "No our grandpa wasn't mean he just thought that hunting and protecting yourself with a gun was something everyone should be able to do."

"Ooh." Mari said in response.

He was about to start shooting again when he vaguely registered a thought that popped into Lunnesa's head. He wasn't sure what it was about her thought that caught his attention but when examined it closer he first instinct was to recoil from it and shoot the idea down. But he hesitated he didn't need to follow Lunnesa's train of thought as his own mind was weighing the pros and cons of it now that the idea was in his head.

Teaching Clementine how to shoot and giving her the .22 could potentially be very dangerous, one mistake and she could all too easily accidentally kill herself and/or someone else. Things were dangerous enough without having to worry that Clementine might play with a gun like a toy. But as he thought about it he also thought of earlier when those two monsters had gone after her and Mari, they were both okay since they didn't panic. But if they had panicked what then? There was no guarantee that he and Lunnesa would have gotten to them in time. And the more he thought about it the more he realized that eventually monsters or some desperate people would back Clementine and Mari into a corner, and neither he or Lunnesa would be able to get to them in time.

Lunnesa looked up at him and said hesitantly. _"I'm not sure about you but I think it would be more dangerous not to teach Clementine how to shoot."_

 _"I know but she's a little girl we can't just give her a gun."_ He said feeling like this would come around to bite him no matter what he chose. _"Even grandpa wouldn't have taught her so young. He didn't start teaching me how to shoot until we were twelve."_

Lunnesa argued. _"Both of us have struggled to break out of the grip of those things when they got a hold of us. And the two of us are strong enough to take on a group of those thing, so Clementine would never be able to force her way free. But If we give Clementine a gun she'll be able to hold her own against those things. If this was just a natural disaster like a hurricane and we were just dealing with looters and desperate people I'd agree she's too young, but this is so much worse. I honestly think this is a matter of picking a lesser evil and that's giving her a gun."_

He wanted to argue giving a little kid a gun set off so many alarm bells off in his head it wasn't funny. Every instinct in him screamed that he should do whatever he could to shelter Clementine and Mari from everything that was happening, at least as much as he could. But Lunnesa was echoing what his common sense was saying and he didn't have any real argument against it.

Sighing to himself he looked back towards Clementine and Mari. The two of them had already proven to be very smart for their age so he wasn't surprised that the two of them were staring at him and Lunnesa questioningly, obviously having caught on to their private conversation. He grabbed the marker and used it to quickly draw small circles around his shots. Then he he went back and crouched down in front of Clementine and gestured for her to come over to him. Clementine complied taking a few steps towards him, he held the gun out towards her and said. "Your really little and your really good at running and hiding from the monsters but you need to be able to protect yourself too. So I'll teach you how to shoot like my grandpa taught me."

Clementine's eyes widened and she moved her clasped hands up in front of her chest looking suddenly nervous, as Mari chittered softly wringing her paws. "Are-are you sure?" Clementine asked.

He nodded his head. "Yes. Like I said you need to be able to protect yourself. Now the first thing you need to know and remember is it's just a thing as long as you respect it you don't have to be afraid of it. Alright?" Clementine slowly hesitantly nodded her head. He gently put the gun into Clementine's hands and showed her the safety and the magazine release button. "This little switch here is the safety. Now you see this little red dot? If you can see it that means the gun will fire if you pull the trigger. But if you flip the switch and cover up the dot then the gun won't fire no matter how hard you pull the trigger. And this little button here let's You take out the magazine when it runs out of bullets. You got that?"

Clementine nodded her head slowly meanwhile Mari said "Got it." Sounding much more determined than Clementine looked.

Then he lined her up with the target and helped her find the best way for her to hold the gun with her small hands. "Alright now when you fire you want to keep you arms slightly bent like this." He said bending Clementines arms to a forty-five degree angle. "Otherwise it'll be much, much harder for you to aim your next shot and you might hurt your arms. Now you see those three metal pegs on the top of the gun you want to hold the gun so that those pegs are at your eye level. You'll want to line up the peg at the very front with where you want the bullet to go. And make sure that you line up the back two pegs so the the front peg directly between them." Clementine immediately scrunched up her shoulders and lowered he head. He had to stop himself from chuckling because he distinctly remembered doing the same thing when his grandfather had first taught him to shoot. "No, no, no keep your head up and straight move the gun not your head or you'll miss." After Clementine straightened her head and took a few moments moving the pistol around he said. "Alright now I've found that holding your breath when you pull the trigger helps with hitting where your aiming."

"Hold my breath? Like when I'm swimming?" Clementine asked.

"No just for a second as you pull the trigger." Lunnesa answered for him from where she was sitting a couple feet to their right watching them with Mari who had turned back into a rabbit.

He nodded his agreement then said. "Go ahead and pull the trigger when your ready." 

After a few more seconds of hesitation Clementine pulled the trigger and she gave an surprised 'eep' as the pistol bucked he shot hitting a full foot away from the target. Clementine kept a hold of the gun and kept it from hitting her in the face but it was a close call. She lowered the gun and look up at him saying. "That made my hands hurt."

"I know but you'll get use to it don't worry." He said gently trying to reassure her.

Clementine pouted and asked. "Do I have to?"

Again he had to fight the urge to chuckle, instead he turned her back towards the target saying. "Yes, because you'll be safer if you do. Now line up a shot on the target again and this time hold on to the gun tighter and try your best to keep it from moving so much. And keep your eyes open when you pull the trigger okay?"

Clementine nodded and pulled the trigger again and this time the bullet hit just inside the outermost ring of the target. "There you go, see your getting better already." He said with a smile patting Clementine on the back.

"Is everything alright in here?" A voice asked off to the right just behind Lunnesa and Mari. They all turned to see officer Mitchell and Shawn standing in the doorway leading to the living room with their daemons Rem and Sillean. "We heard the girl cry out." Officer Mitchell finished saying.

He nodded his head and answered. "Yeah. The first shit took Clementine by surprise is all."

"Wait your teaching her how to shoot?" Shawn asked incredulously. "Dude she's just a kid."

"I was only a little older than her when I learned how to shoot. And that was before there were walking corpses trying to eat everyone." He said halfheartedly.

"Yeah but giving a kid a gun that can't be a good idea." Shawn said.

"Look I get it me and Lunnesa thought about that. But When we came to help you there was a close call when a couple of those thing went after Clementine and Mari. Thankfully they didn't panic but if there had been more of those things or if they had backed Clementine into a corner I would have been forced to leave your friend Chet in order to protect her and Mari. And even then their would be no guarantee that I'd get there in time." He said to Shawn trying his best to explain his and Lunnesa's thought process. "If I teach her to shoot then she won't be helpless and she'll be able to defend herself even if one of us can't get to her right away."

Shawn went to say something else but officer Mitchell raised a hand and stopped him. "No Shawn the man's right. If things are as bad in Atlanta as you say they are, and from what I heard over the scanner then the girl needs to be able to protect herself." The officer Mitchell looked at him and added. "But you need to make sure she knows that, that isn't a toy."

He nodded both officer Mitchell and Shawn went back into the living room while he went back to teaching Clementine. He had her fire two full magazines before he was satisfied with her aim. She wasn't perfect by any means she didn't seem capable of the same area twice in a row. The bullets hit sporadically one round would hit on the left side of the target, the next would hit somewhere on the right, and and the next hit somewhere on the top. But all of the bullets hit inside of the of the two rings closes to the bullseye and she even managed to hit the bullseye twice (although he suspected that was just luck). So he was fairly confident that she would be able to hit the monsters more often than not. Once that was done he showed her how to load the magazines and had her reload both empty magazines. "Try and keep these where you can grab them easily when you need to reload. You'll just have to hold the gun for now but when you have the option keep them both in a pocket. And when a magazine is empty don't drop it on the ground if you lose them you won't be able to use the gun anymore alright?"

Clementine nodded and with that they went back to the living room to wait with the others.

...

A few hours later when it was completely dark they all got ready to run out to the vehicles. They'd decided that Shawn and Chet would move the couch and officer Mitchell and Rem would be the first outside. Shawn, Chet, Clementine and their daemons going next with him and Lunnesa bringing up the rear. They also decided that while officer Mitchell and Rem went to their cruiser the rest of them would go to Shawn's pickup truck. And because of the limited space in the truck cab and because of their packs he, Lunnesa, Clementine, and Mari would all ride in the bed of the pickup.

"Everyone ready?" Officer Mitchell asked. When everyone gave their agreement officer Mitchell nodded at Shawn and Chet. The two of them pushed the couch aside and they all quickly rushed out of the house.

It was dark and there were clouds in the sky that blocked the moon but luckily most of the street lamps were still working so there was enough light to see by. The way to both the cruiser and the pickup truck were clear but the monsters were still all over the street and a decent number of them had taken notice of their group and were already heading their way. It was a mad dash to get to the vehicles the woman from earlier, or what was left of her came shambling out by the driver's side of Shawn's pickup. Shawn stopped dead in his tracks blocked from getting into the truck. Without missing a beat he raised his shotgun and fired, it felt surreal and so wrong to kill the same person twice in just a few hours. And while that shot cleared the way for Shawn to get into the drivers seat it also alerted all of the monsters on the street. As quickly as his injured leg allowed he helped Clementine and Lunnesa up into the bed of the truck before awkwardly and painfully threw himself over the side into the bed like a drunken seal. He scrambled up as quickly as he could and yelled into the open back window of the truck cap. "Go, go, go!"

The whole truck lurched knocking him, Clementine, and Lunnesa over only Mari who was a rabbit managed to stay on her feet. He felt the truck jump and heard a loud wet impact every time the truck ran over one of the monsters. Things didn't smooth out until after they were out of the suburbs but once it did he sat up and briefly looked around and saw officer Mitchell's cruiser following close behind them.

He briefly caught Shawn's eye in the rear view mirror and Shawn said with a small smile. "You know for just some guy. You sure have the habit of saving other people's lives."

...

It was a little past midnight before they rolled up a long drive way and stopped in front of a large white two story farm house with a wraparound porch. (imagine the version of Hershel's farm from the TV show) Chet and Shawn got out of the cab of the truck and Chet said goodbye to all of them and left as he helped Clementine lower herself from the tailgate. Shawn had gone over to talk to Officer Mitchell just as he tried to get down from the tailgate but because of his injury, the extra weight of his pack, and after sitting for hours in a rather uncomfortable position his leg gave out from under him. He fell with a yell of pain and hit the ground hard he heard Lunnesa a loud high pitched yelp as his pain fed back to her through their bond. He was vaguely aware of a car door slamming and both Clementine and Mari yelling. "Lee!?" As he tried to grit his way through the pain and get back up.

He'd only just gotten up on to his hands and knees when two sets of hands grabbed him and helped him back up to his feet. "You alright there?" Officer Mitchell asked as he help steady him.

"Yeah." He said through him his teeth then added. "Fuck. That hurt like hell."

"Swear." Mari said standing next to Clementine still in her rabbit form.

He blinked at that but before he could react the front door of the farm house opened and a man came out asking. "Is everything alright out here?" The man was white, tall, looked to be in his fifties, his hair was snow white and was thinning at the top, he was clean shaven, he was wearing a button down shirt and a pair of suspenders, and while he looked a little bit on the heavier side it was obvious that it was just the natural weight put on with age as he still had muscle. But before anyone could respond to his question the man's eyes landed on Shawn and he walked down the steps of the porch, with a whitetail doe with streaks of silver running through her hair following close behind him saying. "Thank God, you're ok." Then the man pulled Shawn into a hug.

(Hopefully I did Hershel justice with this description. If not imagine the version of Hershel from the TV show. And for my urban friends a whitetail is a type of deer.)

"I was worried that it would be bad here too." Shawn said returning the hug while his daemon Sillean rubbed heads with the whitetail doe.

"It's been quiet as usual." The man said as he pulled back from Shawn. "Only note worthy thing is that ol' Breckon thinks his mare's gone lame."

The whitetail doe gave a small laugh and added. "But we all know that ain't nothing new."

With that the man and his daemon turned their attention. "I see you brought some guest." The man said then he gave a respectful nod and added. "Andre."

Officer Mitchell returned the nod. "Hershel."

"Did Brandon and his family make it out of Atlanta with you?" Hershel's daemon asked. Officer Mitchell didn't answer but his expression and the pained whimper and tucked tail from Rem was answer enough.

"Ooh." Hershel said softly real pain lacing his voice. "Well you are more then welcome to stay with us Andre."

Officer Mitchell composed himself then in a professional tone said. "Thank you Hershel but I'm going to be rolling out. Me and Rem are still officers and we can still do our best to keep others alive."

Hershel looked like he wanted to say more on the subject but didn't. There was a moment of awkward silence then Shawn gestured first at him then Clementine saying. "Dad this is Lee and Lunnesa, and this is Clementine and Mari. We met them as we were getting through the suburbs. Some crazies tried to kill me and Chet to get the truck, thankfully Andre and Rem showed up. But even with their help there was no way we could have gotten out of that without someone getting kill if Lee and Lunnesa hadn't shown up when they did."

Hershel and his daemon looked at them with a mixture of surprise and gratitude. "Well Lee, Lunnesa it seems I owe some gratitude for helping my son. It's not often that strangers put their lives on the line for someone they don't know." Then Hershel glanced down at his injured leg. "I can help you with that come up onto the porch." Then Hershel turned and went back inside the house Shawn and both of their daemons following him.

Officer Mitchell helped him up to the porch and to sit down on the porch swing. Hershel came back out holding some bandages and a bottle of disinfectant. As Hershel made his way towards him, his daemon looked at Clementine and her eyes widened a split second later Hershel's head snapped around and he focused on Clementine. Then Hershel looked from him and officer Mitchell to Clementine, he got a feeling he knew what had caught their attention. Both he and Lunnesa braced to defend their themselves while Clementine and Mari fidgeted. Hershel's eye finally fixed on him and asked. "You gave your daughter a gun?"

"She's not our daughter." Lunnesa answered calmly. "Her parents are in Savanna and their babysitter is dead, they've been surviving on their own for days. And yes we taught her how to use a gun. We've had a few close calls with some of those things, we've been lucky that me and Lee got there in time or the two of them were able to get away. But we don't want to rely on just luck so we made sure she could defend herself."

"But she's just a little girl." Hershel's daemon said indignantly.

"My grandfather taught me how to use a gun when I was only a little older the Clem is now." He said then with a sad sigh he added. "And believe me if it wasn't for just how dangerous and how many of those things are out there I never would have given her the gun."

Both Hershel and his daemon looked like they wanted to say more but to his surprise officer Mitchell spoke up. "Hershel you know full well my stance of allowing kids near guns. I don't know what you've seen on the news but things are far worse then what you've seen. There's a reason my brother and his family didn't make it out of Atlanta. Believe it or not that girl is safer with a gun then without it."

There was a few moments of silence in which he and Lunnesa looked at officer Mitchell. It was obvious that the officer and he daemon didn't completely trust him and Lunnesa since they were keeping a close eye on both of them. And yet that was the second time tonight the officer had defended his decision to teach Clementine to shoot. Both he and Lunnesa both agreed to ask them why first chance they had.

Hershel exchanged a look with his daemon. Then Hershel seemed to grudgingly accepted their reasoning even if he didn't like it, or at the very least he accepted he didn't have much say since Clementine and Mari weren't his responsibility. Hershel sighed then he came over and knelt in front of him and started dabbing disinfectant on the large cut in his leg. Hershel looked back up at him and said. "By the way I'm Hershel Greene and this is Jessibell." The whitetail doe 'Jessibell' nodded her head at him. A few seconds later Hershel said. "Hmm how did this happen?"

_"Lee, Jessibell is looking at your wrists."_ Lunnesa said. He looked up and saw that she was right Jessibell was glancing down at his hands and he noticed Hershel's head tilt slightly like he was listening to something, Jessibell was obviously telling Hershel about the sores on his wrists.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please if you read put a vote in the comments

**Choice 1:** Hershel has asked how you got injured, his daemon has noticed the sores and bruises on your wrist from the handcuffs. How do you want to answer?

**A.** Tell a complete but believable lie. Based on current evidence and your current relationship status you have a 14pos/6neg chance of convincing Hershel, and a 16pos/4neg chance of convincing officer Mitchell. If convinced gain 2 relationship points with the ones you convince. If not convinced you'll lose a minimum of 2 relationship points or a maximum of 4 points. Whether you lose 2 or 4 is decided by coin toss using your current relationship status to set the modifier. Hershel relationship level is **N** **eutral** with a modifier of 10min/10max. Officer Mitchell reputation level is **Disliked** with a modifier of 11min/9max. And convincing someone of a lie now and being caught later changes reputation loss to minimum loss of 3 points and a maximum loss of 5 points.

**B.** Tell a half truth, the most believable lies are based on truth. Based on current evidence and your current relationship you have a 12pos/8neg chance of convincing Hershel, and a 14pos/6neg chance of convincing officer Mitchell. If successful gain 1 point of relationship if not lose of relationship points will depend on Hershel relationship level is **N** **eutral** 10min/10max. Officer Mitchell relationship level is **Disliked** 11min/9max. 

**C.** Tell the truth and try to convince Hershel and officer Mitchell it was a honest mistake and your not a threat. Being honest will give you a 9pos/11neg chance of convincing both Hershel and officer Mitchell that you aren't a threat. If you convince them your not a threat you have a 8pos/12neg chance of increasing your reputation with Hershel by 2 points. And you have a 10pos/10neg chance of increasing your reputation with officer Mitchell by 2 points. If you fail to convince them that your not a threat you are guaranteed to lose 2 points of reputation with them both.

**Choice 2:** Officer Mitchell and his daemon Rem have decided to leave and go and try to save as many people as they can on their own.

**A.** Wish them luck and let them leave.

**B.** Try and convince them that given the current situation they would do better, and they'd save more lives in the long run if they stay with a small group of people. If convinced they will join you and Kenny's family when you leave the farm. The chances of convincing them will be base off their relationship level after the outcome of choice 1. Possible modifiers after choice 1. **Neutral** 10pos/10neg, **Disliked** 11pos/9neg, **Not Trusted** 13pos/7neg.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Character Relationship system

 **0** :Mortal Enemy, **1** , **2** :Hated, **3** , **4** :Not Trusted, **5** , **6** :Disliked, **7** , **8** :Neutral, **9** , **10** :Liked, **11** , **12** :Trusted, **13** , **14** :Loyal, **15** , **16** :Lover/Family

 **Mortal Enemy:** This character will do anything to hurt or kill you

 **Hated:** This character will actively oppose and/or attack you

 **Not Trusted:** You have proven to be untrustworthy in this characters eye's they're won't listen/believe you and are unlikely to back you up

 **Disliked:** This character has an obvious dislike for you and question your motives and reasons but there is still a good chance they'll listen to/help you

 **Neutral:** This character is completely neutral to you

 **Liked:** This character likes you their more likely listen to/help you but might back out if it's too dangerous

 **Trusted:** You have proven trust worthy in this character's eyes they'll believe your words before others and are likely to back you up in dangerous situations

 **Loyal:** You have earned this characters loyalty they are likely to take your side and back you up in almost any situation

 **Lover/Family:** This character sees you as family/a lover (depends if romance option is given/taken) this creates a nearly unbreakable bond between you and this character. This character will follow you through hell and/or go through hell for you.

**Lee's &Lunnesa's Relationship status with:**

**Clementine &Mari:** 12/16 Trusted: Your a stranger and you took their dad's tools. But you promised to stay with them no matter what and have been protecting them from walkers. The gun scares Clementine a little but both she and Mari are happy that she can defend herself.

**Shawn &Sillean:** 12/16 Trusted: They don't know who you are but you charged in to help save them and defiantly saved Chet and Que.

**Chet &Que:** 13/16 Trusted: They don't know who you are but you saved their lives.

**Officer Andre Mitchell &Rem:** 7/16 Disliked: They suspect who you are and what you've done. But Lee saved Chet and Lunnesa helped Rem.

**Hershel &Jessibell: **9/16 Neutral: They are grateful that you helped save their son. But Jessibell notice the sores from the handcuffs on your wrist, and both are worried that you gave Clementine a gun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you have ideas for OCs and you want me to hold off using them until we get to season 2 or later. That's fine by all means submit them, just specify which season you want me to wait and use them for. And if you want to wait that's fine because I'll be accepting new OC submission during the first episode of each season. This means I'll be accepting OC submissions for this season until the pharmacy is overrun and the group moves into the Motor Inn. And then submissions will open back up when we reach the point of Clementine getting close to meeting the Cabin group. Be warned there is no guarantee that any characters other then Clem, Christa, Kenny, And Lilly will survive season 1.

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Gender & Race:**

**Daemon's name & form(s): **Daemons aren't typically give typical human names like John, Paul, or Becky they're typically given names like Maximums, Lunnesa, Pollen, Mari, Talion things like that. If you don't add a name for your character's daemon I'll come up with one. (if your character is under the age of 18 and unsettle list the daemons four or five favorite forms)

 **Positive traits:** at least 3 for both the human and their daemon Examples: loyal, always level headed, caring, always has a sense of humor, ect. (please specify which traits belong to the human and which belong to the daemon they can have as many trait in common as you like but daemons _are not_ mirror images of their humans and they _do not_ act exactly the same as their humans they are reflections of that persons soul or inner most personality but they also have their own unique personality)

 **Negative traits:** at least 3 for both the human and their daemon Examples: short tempered, trust issues, drinking problems, doesn't play nice with others, ect. (please specify which traits belong to the human and which belong to the daemon they can have as many trait in common as you like but daemons _are not_ mirror images of their humans and they _do not_ act exactly the same as their humans they are reflections of that persons soul or inner most personality but they also have their own unique personality)

 **Skills no more then 3:** Examples: martial arts training, military training, playing the guitar, singing, ect. **(Don't underestimate the smaller skills and talents some times the most _meaningful_ characters aren't the ones who kick ass like John Wicked or doge bullets like an anime character)**

 **Description:** Give a brief description of the kind of person your character and their daemons are, give their back story where they're from, what their family's like, their former job, and if it applies how and why they got certain personality traits or skills.

Just a heads up there is a chance that I might have to tweak your character slightly for the story if that happens I will inform you and you will still get credit for the character. Here's an example: Let's say you submitted a character who is a school teacher that spent the first few weeks of the out break protecting a school bus full of kids until he was separated from them by a herd of walkers and has been on his own ever since. I might change that to a school teacher who was forcefully drafted into the national guard at the start of the out break to fight the walkers but saw the writing on the wall and deserted first chance he had to protect his student. Or maybe you've submitted a great character that I really want to use but they seem to be a little OP I might balance it out by say they lost an eye or were a kung fu master until they took an arrow to the knee. Hell it might just be a simple as your character being married to somebody else's character. There will be no major rewrites just small changes.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late post I had hoped to get this out by the 9th but I work at a distribution warehouse and two people on morning shift popped positive for covid-19. So nearly the whole morning crew was put in quarantine so I been working 11am to 11 pm for the last two weeks pick up the slack left by their absence.
> 
> *Lee's daemon Lunnesa is a female brown and black furred Iberian wolf with silver eyes.  
> *Clementine's daemon Mari is female and unsettled favorite forms rabbit, hummingbird, squirrel, and dove.  
> *Officer Mitchell's daemon Rem is a female german shepard.  
> *Shawn's daemon Sillean is a female sheltlands sheepdog.  
> *Hershel's daemon Jessibell is a female whitetail doe.

**I WILL BE CHANGING THE VOTING SYSTEM INSTEAD OF CLOSING POLLS TWO DAYS AFTER THE CHAPTER IS POSTED. I'LL CLOSE THE POLL TWO DAYS AFTER I RECEIVE THE FIRST VOTE FOR THE CHAPTER.**

Hey everybody here's the next chapter the votes from the last chapter stand at:

**Choice 1:** 1 vote for B, and 3 votes for C.

 **Choice 2:** unanimous B

The choice modifiers for these choices stand at:

**Choice 1:** Convincing Hershel and officer Mitchell your not a threat 9pos/11neg. The coin landed on heads 9 times and on tails 7 times. We get the positive outcome.

Gaining relationship points with Hershel 8pos/12neg. The coin landed on heads 6 times and tails 12 times. No relationship point gain.

Gaining relationship points with officer Mitchell 10pos/10neg. The coin landed on heads 10 times and tails 9 times. Plus 2 relationship points, new relationship level 9/16 **Neutral**.

 **Choice 2:** Convincing officer Mitchell of leaving the farm with you 10pos/10neg. The coin landed on heads 10 times and on tails 4 times. Officer Mitchell will leave the farm with you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This means people are talking out loud"

_"This means a person and their daemon are speaking privately mind to mind"_

"This will be used for when someone is speaking through electronics like radios or walkie talkies"

Lee's POV

He looked at Hershel for a second and he honestly considered coming up with some or at least being as vague as he possibly could be. But in the end he decided that it would just be a better idea just to come clean now. Lunnesa followed his train of thought she didn't like it because of the risk but she agreed that considering their current situation it was better then being caught in a lie.

"I got hurt in a car crash as we were heading out of Atlanta." He said hoping to work into telling them that he was a convicted murderer.

"The news said stay?" Hershel said throwing a glance towards officer Mitchell.

"Well that's a mistake." He said adamantly. "There were hundreds of those monsters in the suburbs I don't want to imagine what the city looks like right now."

Hershel slowly nodded his head but didn't comment further. But officer Mitchell's daemon Rem spoke up and asked. "You said that the two of you found Clementine and Mari alone right? Were the two of you alone when you left Atlanta?"

Already feeling his heart sink in his chest he said. "No we were with another officer he and his daemon were killed by those things after the crash. They were taking us to the West Georgia Correctional Facility." (That's the actual name of the prison where the TV show was filmed)

Hershel froze as he and Jessibell looked at him and Lunnesa. Officer Mitchell and Rem actually seemed to relax hearing that. "The West Georgia Correctional Facility is a small minimum security prison Hershel used to house prisoners guilty of small petty crimes." Officer Mitchel said seeing the expression on both Hershel's and Jessibell's faces, then officer Mitchell turned back to him and asked. "So what were you in for drunk driving, speeding tickets, B&E?"

Lunnesa raised an eyebrow at at him and asked. "Do we seem like the B&E type to you? Besides wouldn't that mean we'd be sent to at least a medium security prison?"

Officer Mitchell shrugged and said. "Depends on the situation. As long as you didn't steal enough to make it a felony, threaten, or hurt anyone you'd still have a good chance at a light sentence. Besides the two of you and the girl are carrying an unusually large amount of supplies."

"Fair enough. If it helps we wouldn't have done this if there weren't walking corpses around." That earned him a nod and another shrug, with a sigh he added. "But no we were charged with second degree murder."

The reaction was instantaneous Jessibell's eyes narrowed while Hershel's expression hardened his muscles tensing. Rem's Hackles started to raise while Officer Mitchell straightened up his hand drifting towards his holstered gun.

Even seeing this he made no move towards his shotgun. And Lunnesa didn't even try to lift up her head from were she was laying down next to him as she said. "Easy officers you know full well if we wanted to hurt you or anyone else we've had dozens of chances especially while you were being attack earlier. We're telling you because accident or no we've never tried to hide from what we did and we aren't going to start now."

"When we came home we found our wife in bed with another man. Me and the man fought, during the fight I punched him in the jaw he stumbled backwards tripped over our daemons and slammed head first into the corner of a bedside table." He said without waiting for the others to say anything in response to Lunnesa. "I wanted to beat his ass maybe put him in the hospital for sleeping with my wife, but I don't want to kill him. So when he stopped moving and his daemon started panicking I called the police and did my best to give him first-aid. But he'd cracked his skull when he hit his head and it caused a brain aneurysm. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital."

"You didn't run?" Jessibell asked looking him in the eye obviously trying to find some kind of lie in them.

He shook his head and said. "No. Like Lunnesa said we've never tried to hide from what happened. Besides at the time I was thinking that me being there might be the difference between him living and dying."

After a few seconds of silence Hershel said. "Well I believe it when you say that you didn't mean to kill him. But accident or not your have to live with the fact that you killed a man for the rest of your life. And if and when things calm down you'll still have to answer for it."

"I know." He said sadly. He didn't regret attacking the senator and would do it again if faced with a similar situation, but he truly hadn't wanted to kill the man.

Hershel gave him a slow nod and went back to bandaging his leg and asked. "So now that you have the girl what's your plan?"

"Probably head to Macon that's where my parents and brother are." He answered happy with the change of topic.

"Well I hope their alright." Jessibell said.

After that they were all silent while Hershel finished bandaging his leg. Then Shawn came out of the house with Sillean following close on his heels. "Dad, I was thinking in the morning we can reinforce the fence around the house Lee and the others in the barn can help out but it needs to be done. Because some serious shi-" Shawn hesitated and glanced at Clementine. "-stuff is hitting the fan. I don't think that anyone knows how bad things are yet."

"Things like that don't happen around here Shawn." Hershel said. "We have enough to do around here as it is."

"Dad this won't just pass us by. People are dying out there dad." Shawn argued adamantly, then he turned to look at him and officer Mitchell. "Lee, Andre tell him. Tell him what you saw out there."

Officer Mitchell crossed his arms and looked down at the porch and didn't say anything.

But with a gentle mental prodding from Lunnesa he said. "Your son's right your going to want to fortify this place and start gathering up supplies. Just from what I saw in the suburbs those things are every where. Before we ran into officer Mitchell and your boy we were searching abandoned houses for supplies in one of the houses we found what was left of a family. They'd been torn apart but they still came after us, if Mari hadn't flown up and out of their reach to distract them we would have been overrun. When me and Lunnesa searched the second floor we..." His voice trailed off the image of what was left of the twins in that closet all too clear in his mind. He looked at Clementine and Mari the two of them were following the conversation. He didn't know how much they understood but he was going to do his best to protect them from an image that he knew would haunt him and Lunnesa for the rest of their lives. "We...we found a couple of those things in a closet that were much _smaller_ then the others." He said looking down at the floor boards of the porch finding it hard to put what they saw into words. Neither he or Lunnesa notice that the tone of his voice and both of their expressions had caught the full attention of the other adults. "There...there was so little of them left but that didn't stop them from...from trying to get to us."

It was a few silent seconds before he could meet any of the others eyes. When he did he saw horrified understanding in all of the adults eyes but thankfully Clementine and Mari both looked slightly confused. He met and held Hershel's eyes, Hershel pursed his lips then nodded his head reluctantly looking at Shawn saying. "Do what you what you think you should." Then Hershel looked back at him and asked. "So is your leg the only thing you hurt in the car crash?"

He was about to tell Hershel that he fine but Lunnesa overrode him picking up her head from her paws. "Actually there is can you look at Lee's head he hit it pretty hard during the crash. He's been forgetting and spacing out on things. It's just been small things like not checking if doors are locked before trying to break them down or that daemon's can't actually get sick. It's nothing major but it still has me worried."

"Hmm." Hershel hummed glancing at him before looking back at Lunnesa and asked. "Alright did he or you lose consciousness? Has he been having headaches?"

Lunnesa nodded her head and said. "We both were unconscious for at least a little over a day maybe two. And when we woke up Lee did have a slight headache for a few hours."

Hershel hummed again then gestured at him and asked. "May I?" When he nodded his head Hershel turned his head so he was facing the porch light and looked closely at his eyes. "Well your left pupil is larger then your right, so I'm pretty sure that you have a concussion. Have your headaches gotten worse?"

"No." He said truthfully. "In fact my head hasn't hurt in a few hours."

"Well since you woke up at all after being knock out like that, and since your headache is gone. I think you'll be fine." Hershel looked down at Lunnesa and added. "You shouldn't worry to much, temporary memory loss isn't uncommon with head injuries he'll be fine once his concussion heals. How about you were you hurt?"

Lunnesa nodded her head again. "I got knocked out the same time as Lee and didn't wake up until he did. But I haven't had headaches or memory problems I'm pretty sure that, that I went out because of our bond. However my ribs hurt pretty bad when I first woke up but by the time we met your son and officer Mitchell I was feeling perfectly fine."

Hershel's brow furrowed. "With how quickly daemons heal. And since you were still hurting when you woke up after being unconscious for at least a full day means that it had to be a serious injury. May I have look? Just to make sure they healed properly." They both hesitated but in the end Lunnesa gave her permission for Hershel to check her ribs. Hershel gently pressed on and traced her ribs with his fingers. "That's what I was afraid of. You broke at least five ribs and because no one rest them they healed wrong. Judging by how your ribs are fully healed. I'd say the two of you were defiantly out for two full days. But that means that we're going to have to rebreak and reset them."

Lunnesa looked at him and saying. _"Lee!"_ The fear clear on her face and in her voice.

"What's the risk if we just leave them?" He asked, he figured that it could be a bad thing but he really didn't to break break her bones.

Hershel shook his head. "It wouldn't be worth it. With them how they are now her bones are weak and are more likely to break on their own. And when their likely puncture a lung or another organ. I rebreak them now and I'll be able to control how they break minimizing the damage and allowing them to heal properly."

Knowing full well just how bad this was going to before Lunnesa his voice was strained as he said. "Alright do it."

Hershel nodded then looked at Shawn and gestured at Clementine and Mari. "Shawn can you take them inside and get them something to drink. Then come right back I'm going to need your's and Andre's help holding her down, she can't move while I do this."

Clementine looked at him looking afraid. "Lee?"

"It's alright Clementine go on ahead I'll come get you once we're done Fixing Lunnesa up." He said reassuring. Clementine shot him another worried look but followed Shawn into the house.

He helped Hershel take the pack off of Lunnesa and he gave her a T-shirt to bite down on. Then when Shawn came back out Hershel had Lunnesa lay on her side then he had Shawn and officer Mitchell hold Lunnesa down. He backed off knowing that there wasn't much he could do to help, other then send a constant stream of calming and comforting emotions through their bond to Lunnesa. It didn't seem to help much because even though she tried to be tough about it Lunnesa's breathing picked up becoming short tight gasps. And you didn't need a bond with her to feel the borderline panic radiating off of her.

"Alright on three." Hershel said. "One...two...three!"

White hot pain flared through his side as there were multiple loud cracks. He fell to his knees with a gasp fighting a scream. As bad as it was for him it was worse for Lunnesa. She screamed inside his head and at the same time she let out a spine chilling sound somewhere between a yelp and a howl, a sound that was somehow made worse because of the T-shirt muffling it. Hershel moved his hands resetting Lunnesa's ribs eliciting both another mental and canine scream.

"Alright we're good." Hershel said, he and the other two let go of Lunnesa leaving her panting, trembling, and tears running down her face. Hershel turned to him and said. "She shouldn't move much at least until morning. By then she should have healed enough to keep he rip from moving out of place."

"Dad we don't have room in the house for them. Not with Maggie home, with Otis, Patricia, and Jimmy all staying here." Shawn said. "The only other place we can have them stay at is in the barn with that other family, but how are we going to get her there?"

Hershel looked thoughtful for a few seconds then said. "First we'll give her something for the pain so she can sleep. Then we'll put her on a blanket or a sheet and you and Andre can carry her to the barn." Then Hershel looked at him and added. "I'll go get your girl so you can stay here with her."

He knelt down by Lunnesa's head and started petting her neck doing his best to comfort her and help her through their bond. Officer Mitchell went back to his spot leaning against the railing of the porch looking off into the night. Meanwhile Rem laid down close to Lunnesa and put one oh her paws on on of Lunnesa's obviously try to help comfort her. He gave Rem a grateful look then turned his attention back to Lunnesa while he waited for Hershel and Shawn to come back with Clementine, Mari, and the medicine.

Mari zipped into view as a hummingbird hovered over Lunnesa for a second before she looked at him and asked in a small voice. "Is Lunnesa okay?"

He looked to his left and saw Clementine standing next to him looking at him with the same fear that was on Mari's little face. He looked between the two of them as he said. "Yeah she's okay she's just in pain. Me and her got hurt before we met you and Mr. Greene had to help her to make her better even though it hurt."

"Just 'Hershel' is fine." Hershel said coming over with a pill bottle and a glass of water, Rem had to move so Hershel could kneel in front of Lunnesa. Hershel had him lift Lunnesa's head so he could put a couple of pills in Lunnesa's mouth and wash them down with the water. Then Shawn handed Hershel a blanket, Hershel spread it out next to Lunnesa. Then he, Hershel, Shawn, and officer Mitchell moved Lunnesa as gently as they could onto the blanket. "Alright she should alright Shawn and Andre can help you carry her to the barn. But before you go as long as you're on my property I don't want you or the girl carrying guns. You can either leave them here in my house or keep them in your packs in the barn, but I don't want you carrying firearms while you're here." Then Hershel looked at officer Mitchell and added. "And that includes you too Andre. If you plan on staying the night either leave your gun in the house or locked in your cruiser."

Officer Mitchell raised an eyebrow at Hershel and asked. "You do realize that as a Police Officer I've been fully trained on how to use and handle a firearm, right?"

"You weren't trained by me." Hershel said simply. "And my point still stands. My land, my rules."

Without anymore preamble he grabbed his shotgun and held it out to Hershel. Hershel accepted it with a nod of thanks, then he look at Clementine and said. "Go on Clementine give Hershel your gun." He felt a small amount of pride as Clementine first checked to make sure the safety was on before holding out grip first for Hershel to take it.

With that done Hershel went back into the house taking the guns with him. Meanwhile Shawn and officer Mitchell each grabbed two corners of the blanket and lifted Lunnesa up and started off towards the barn. He picked up both his and Lunnesa's packs then he, Clementine, and Mari followed the others to the barn. Shawn and officer Mitchell in an area between the hoarse stall that was half full of hay bails and had a thick layer of loos hay on the floor. He went over crouching down next to Lunnesa and started petting her neck again. Shawn patted his shoulder then he and Sillean left the barn.

He'd expected officer Mitchel and Rem to leave too, instead officer Mitchell drew his attention but clearing his throat then said. "Just for the record me and Rem suspected who you were when we first met. We didn't say anything and decided to trust you some, incase we were wrong and because the two of you risked your life to help us. (putting 'life' instead of 'lives' is not a spelling error as a human and their daemon both die if one or the other is killed.) When you admitted to what you did neither of us knew what to think. On one hand the two of you risked your life for us and saved Chet and Que, but on the other hand with most cases like yours most people aren't as innocent as they say they are. All their doing is repeating some party line to save their ass. But one of the benefits of being a cop for fifteen years is you learn when someone's trying to sell you a line of bullshit." The entire time officer Mitchell spoke his voice and expression was professional but calm and relaxed, and his eyes never leaving Lee's. "So I believe you when you say that it was an accident. Like Hershel said you'll have to live with it and when things get sorted out you'll have to serve you time. But I believe you."

There was a loud almost exasperated sigh. He looked down and saw Rem rolling her eyes she threw a look at officer Mitchell before looking back at him saying. "What mister 'by the book' here is trying to say. Your a good man in our book and any man who willingly sleeps with a married woman has earned what's coming to them. It's just a shame that you were there when karma decided to bite him in the ass." Officer Mitchell nodded his agreement although he seemed slightly offended by Rems 'by the book' comment.

He actually felt a small smile form on his face and he nodded accepting their words. With that officer Mitchell and Rem turned and started to leave the barn. The two of them were half way to the barn doors when he suddenly felt the need to call out to them. "Officers!" When the two of them turned towards him he continued. "I know you want to head out and try to help as many people as you can. But with things as they are now it's too dangerous for anyone to be on their own and not have someone watching their back. Also anyone you save or help will likely die a couple hours later if your not there with them. Finding a group of people and sticking to them is the safest thing you can do and is also your best bet to save the most lives in the long run." Officer Mitchell and Rem looked at each other for a long minute then they looked back at him and officer Mitchell gave him a single nod then they turned and left the barn.

He didn't know what that nod meant he could only hope that they would at least take what he said into consideration. He looked back down at Lunnesa and sighed it hurt to admit it but there wasn't anything he could do to help her. He looked over at Clementine and Mari who were both watching him expectantly. "Alright lets get out our sleeping bags and go to sleep okay." He said getting nods from both Clementine and Mari.

He and Clementine had finished laying out their sleeping bags then in a hesitant voice Clementine asked "Lee?"

Surprised by the hesitation in her voice he looked at Clementine, she hugging Mari (who was back in rabbit form) to her chest and both of them looking worried. "Yeah?"

"Your not bad, right?" Clementine asked like she was afraid that he would be mad at her for asking.

"No, why do you ask?" He asked, he was pretty surer he knew what Clementine's answer would be but he wanted to be completely sure.

"You were taking about getting into a fight then both Mr. Hershel and officer Mitchell both said you killed someone." Mari said not her usual upbeat and spunky self. Instead she sounded just as hesitant and worried as Clementine. "But neither Mr. Hershel or officer Mitchell seemed mad. Was...was he one of those monsters?"

To be honest he'd expected this to happen at some point he sighed and simply said. "No."

"Oh." Clementine said softly then asked. "Was he a bad man?"

He nodded his and said sadly. "Yes he was. But like I said before and like I'm sure you heard Hershel and officer Mitchell say. Killing him was an accident kill people is a very bad thing and I'd never do it unless there was no other choice."

"Like when those two people were trying to kill Shawn and officer Mitchell?" Mari asked seeming much more at ease.

"Yes, like that." He said softly not sure if it was was a good idea to be talking to the two of them about when it was and when it wasn't alright to kill someone. But at the same time a small part of him thought it was a conversation he'd have to have with them sooner or later. "Now let's get some sleep okay."

"Okay." Both Clementine and Mari said as they laid down on their Disco Broccoli sleeping bag Clementine still holding Mari.

He looked over at Lunnesa already her labored breathing was starting to ease and her eye lids started to droop as the medicine started to take effect. Between the pain and the meds she didn't have much in the way of coherent thoughts. So he gently patted her neck before laying down himself. He surprised himself by falling asleep rather quickly but when he did his dreams were haunted by the boy and the twins from the first house they scavenged. And by walking in on Sasha with the Senator and the resulting fight.

...

He woke up to someone kicking the bottom of his shoe and saying. "Hey wake up." He opened his eyes and looked up and saw a man that was embodiment of redneck. He was white, was wearing well worn jeans, a Bass Pro Shop T-shirt, a trucker's hat, and had a big bushy mustache. The kind of mustache that his brother would have called a 'power stache'. He yawned stretching then he pushed himself up onto his feet and took a closer look at the man, the first thing that he noticed was that the man's daemon was a golden retriever. The second thing he noticed was that both the man and his daemon had the look of people who had seen too much in too short of a time. It was the same look he imagined was on his own face.

"I'm itchy." Clementine complained behind him. He turned and saw Clementine scratching her arm while Mari still a rabbit was looking at him and the new arrival curiously.

"Well you slept in a barn little lady. Your lucky you don't have any spiders in your hair." The man said with a wry smile.

Clementine immediately gasped looking like she was trying to look at the top of her head, and half raised her arms like she wanted to grab her hair but was afraid too. Quick as a flash Mari turned into a squirrel climbed up and stood on Clementine's shoulder and using her paws started to searching Clementine's hair for any spiders.

"But I bet your daddy scared 'em all away, huh?" The man said obviously fighting not to laugh while his daemon smiled.

"I'm uh...not her dad. Name's Lee and this is Lunnesa." He said gesturing down where Lunnesa was still sleeping.

"Kenny, and this is Ada." Kenny said. "She's a heavy sleeper I guess." Kenny added with a nod towards Lunnesa a smile still playing at his lips

He had to fight off a grimace as he said. "No not really, she's usually a very light sleeper. But we were in a wreck a couple of days ago. I hurt my leg and got a concussion but she had it worse, she broke several ribs. They healed but they didn't heal right so when we got here Hershel had to rebreak and reset her ribs."

Ada visibly flinched while Kenny cringed slightly grimacing and saying. "Ouch. I'm sorry."

"It's could have been much worse." He said with a shrug before kneeling down and gently shaking Lunnesa's shoulder trying his best not to jostle her ribs. "Lunnesa, Lunnesa time to wake up." Lunnesa woke up slowly opening her eyes wincing and groaning. _"Are you okay? Do you think you can move?"_ He asked her privately.

It took a few minutes for Lunnesa to answer but after a few small test movements she said. _"I think that I can walk but that's all I'll be able to do."_ Then Lunnesa started trying to push her way up on her paws.

_"Easy now. Take your time."_ He said gently half extending his arms out towards Lunnesa just incase her legs gave out. Lunnesa manage to get up and although he felt the constant throb that echoed back to him through their bond crank up a several notches, she was standing steadily.

"Are you okay?" Ada asked watching Lunnesa like she was about to drop.

Lunnesa made a weak attempt at a smile and said. "Yeah. This is one of the times were I'm glad I settled as a wolf."

Suddenly a boy appeared in the barn door with a duck daemon flying over him head yelling. "Dad! We're going to build a fence! There's a tractor and everything!" Then the boy ran off just as quickly as he'd appeared.

"Come on we better get going or we won't hear the end of it." Kenny said shaking his head. They all started walking out of the barn but at a slow pace since it was all Lunnesa could handle. As they walked Kenny said. "That's my boy, Ken Junior. We call him Duck, though. And his daemon's named Mallard."

He gave Kenny a confused look and asked. "Duck?"

Ada nodded her head ad said fondly. "Yea'. Nothing bothers him. Like water off a Duck's back, y'know."

"That's a good thing, considering the current state of things." Lunnesa said throwing a quick glance back towards Clementine and Mari as she did.

"No kidding." Kenny said before adding. "But frankly, I think it's 'cause he's as dumb as a bag of hammers."

"DAAAD!" Duck yelled across the yard.

"But he makes up for it with enthusiasm." Kenny said with a small smile and a slight shake of his head.

"Huh, I wonder were he got that from?" Ada asked in a tone you'd usually use to comment on the weather.

Kenny did a double take staring down at Ada. That made him give a small laugh and he heard both Clementine and Mari giggling behind him. Even Lunnesa laughed but stopped almost immediately half smiling half grimacing as she said. "Oh...ow...don't make me laugh. Laughing hurts." Then after taking a second to compose herself Lunnesa asked. "Mallard, huh? So your son has a male daemon?"

Kenny didn't bat an eye as he said. "Na'. You know that crime show NCIS? The medical examiner, or was it forensic person?...Anyway one of the main characters was named Donald Mallard. So Duck offered the name 'Mallard' to her with the idea that the names Duck and Mallard sounded like the names two great detectives would have. We tried to convince them that since Mallard is a girl she should have a name more...well more girly. But she refused to respond to anyone unless they called her 'Mallard' and she spends most of her time as different types of duck. So in the end we just gave up."

That made him chuckle again. Then watching the kid and his daemon, he asked. "If you don't mind me asking. Is he ADHD or high functioning Autism?"

Kenny scoffed saying. "ADHD." Then Kenny looked at him raising an eyebrow and asked. "How'd you know?"

"Once you try to get students with one of those two conditions to sit through a three hour long history lecture you learn the signs." He said his tone amused as he remembered a couple of fiascoes once such student had caused.

"Ah." Was all Kenny said in response nodding his head. As they got closer to the house he saw Duck and Mallard standing next to a woman with an otter daemon sitting on some hay bails. Once they were next to Duck and the woman Kenny turned to him saying. "Word is your heading to Macon."

"Yeah it's where my parents and brother are." He answered.

"Well Macon's on the way and, personally, I'd appreciate the company of someone who can knock a couple of heads together if he has to." Kenny said.

"Sure, we'd appreciate the ride." He said nodding not having to think to hard on the offer. Since they could get to Macon in a few hours, a day at the most if the main roads were blocked. It was far better then taking a week to walk there.

"Sounds like a plan then." Kenny said before turning to Duck and the woman saying. "Honey, Duck, this is Lee and Lunnesa. And uh, What's the girl's name?"

"Clementine and Mari." He answered automatically.

"Those are very pretty names. I'm Katjaa and this is Brex." Katjaa said said sweetly gesturing first at herself then her daemon. And now that they were close enough he saw that while Brex's fur was mostly chocolate brown, he had a white patch on his belly, and a pattern of black fur around his eyes that almost looked like he was wearing a pair of glasses.

"Thanks." Clementine said shyly with Mari still perched on her shoulder as a squirrel.

The corners of Kenny's mouth twitched up again as he asked. "Was he stubborn with his name too?"

"No. Mari's defiantly a girl." Lunnesa answered catching onto to Kenny's meaning first.

Kenny looked surprised at first saying. "Oh." Then Kenny looked a little uncomfortable as he asked. "So...does that mean she's batting for the other team?"

He crossed his arms and both he and Lunnesa glared at Kenny. "Kenneth!" Katjaa snapped and Ada quickly bit Kenny's hand.

"Ow!" Kenny said jerking his hand back from his daemon.

"What have I told you about automatically believing every single stereo type you hear? Besides she's an _elementary schooler_." Ada asked acidly glaring up at Kenny.

"If that stereo type was true. Me and Lee never would have been born since our dad has a male daemon." Lunnesa said dryly biting back on the true 

"Uhhh." Was all Kenny said as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Lee what does he mean, 'batting for the other team'?" Clementine asked him suddenly looking confused and drawing everyone's attention. Then both her and Mari perked up and she turned to Kenny saying. "Do you mean baseball? I love baseball especially when I get to watch it with my dad."

All eyes turned back to Kenny waiting to hear how he'd answer. However Kenny was spared from saying anything else as Shawn and officer Mitchell walked out from around the side of the house coming towards them. Once they were close enough Shawn said. "Well we should get to work. We've all seen what those things can do out there the sooner we get this fence up, the better."

"Yea' we're going to help build a fence." Duck said excitedly jumping.

"Oh yeah?" Shawn asked smiling at Duck's enthusiasm. "Well I could use a good Foreman."

"What's that mean?" Mallard asked cocking her head to the side.

Sillean chuckled and said. "It means you two get to sit on the tractor and help me make sure he doesn't get lazy."

"On a tractor? Cool!" Duck cheered. Then he and Mallard followed Shawn and Sillean back around to the side of the house where Shawn and officer Mitchell had come from.

"Me and Brex can keep an eye on Clementine and Mari here on the porch. We can visit for a while." Katjaa suggested kindly.

He nodded his approval and that seemed to be an unspoken signal. Because as soon as he did their little group broke up. Clementine and Mari went to sit on a hay bail next to Katjaa and Brex. Kenny and Ada went over to a dark blue pickup truck he assumed was their truck. And officer Mitchell and Rem went over to their squad car a good twenty yards from Kenny's truck. After a few seconds he and Lunnesa decided to talk to the others before going to help Shawn with the fence. Out of curiosity they went towards officer Mitchell and Rem first.

Officer Mitchell had opened the trunk of his cruiser and pulled out his pistol, a shotgun, and both his and Rem's thick kevlar vests. Officer Mitchell had knelt down and was strapping Rem's vest on to her as he and Lunnesa got within five feet and he asked. "So you stayed?"

Officer Mitchell glanced up at him as he continued strapping on Rem's vest saying. "Yeah. We thought about what you said, and we agreed you had a point. The best way for us to keep others safe and alive in the long run is by sticking to a group." When officer Mitchell finished he stood up and started strapping on his own kevlar vest

He felt Lunnesa's questioning thoughts so he quickly played for her his memories of their conversation last night while she was out of it. Then he asked officer Mitchell. "So where are you heading now? You don't exactly need guns and kevlar to reinforce the fence."

"Before Chet and Que left last night, Chet said they'd come back this morning to help Shawn with the fence. But they aren't here and no one answered when Shawn called his house. It might just be that they lost power or that the phonelines are down, but we're going to check on them." Rem answered sounding worried while officer Mitchell loaded his shotgun and looking grim.

Not knowing what to say and knowing he couldn't help, not with Lunnesa being hurt. So he just said. "Alright, stay safe out there." Officer Mitchell gave him a quick nod then took off at a jog with Rem right on his heels. After watching them go he and Lunnesa turned around and headed towards Kenny and Ada. Lunnesa silently grumbled still upset over Kenny's comment earlier. _"Come on Lu. You and I both know that if you weren't already in a bad mood because your in pain, you would have already let that go."_ He said, getting a few more grumbles but he could feel that she grudgingly succeeded the point.

"Hey Kenny need any help?" He asked as they got close to where Kenny was leaning over the engine of his truck with Ada sitting next to him.

"Na' I think I got it. She may not be the prettiest or newest truck but she's reliable." Kenny said with a bit of pride as he patted the truck's engine. Then Kenny's face became a bit hesitant as he asked. "Do you need any help?"

Both he and Lunnesa were confused not sure what Kenny meant.

"Kenny." Ada said warningly. Ada's tone wasn't angry as far as he could tell just cautioning.

Kenny made a quick 'settle down' hand gesture at Ada before saying. "I don't mean any offense. I just mean do you need any help with taking care of that little girl? You know what your doing? You got kids of your own?"

Hearing that made him look over his shoulder to where Clementine and Mari where sitting and talking to Katjaa and Brex. "Honestly, I have no idea what I'm doing." He admitted as he looked back to Kenny.

He could feel Lunnesa wanting to take offence to Kenny's question. But he could also tell she was trying to what he said about her mood in mind as she said. "Yeah yesterday we pretty much just winged it."

Kenny smiled and snorted as he turned back to working on the truck engine. "At least you're honest. Shit, better than the two of us were when Duck and Mallard were born. You'll figure it out."

He had his doubts considering the way things were, but he'd take Kenny's word for it. He was going to leave but another question accrued to him so he asked. "Hey Kenny I noticed you have Florida license plates. If you don't mind me asking how'd you and your family end up so close to Atlanta?"

"Kat has a sister in Memphis we were on the our way back home when all of this started." Kenny answered.

"We were at a gas station when this guy came out of no where, and grabbed Duck." Ada added her voice soft as she looked off into the distance

"Me and Ada were on the fucker in about to seconds." Kenny said his face and voice hard. "We thought the he was trying to kidnap him."

"Was he one of those things?" Lunnesa asked already imagining what the situation would have been like.

"Yes." Ada said in the same soft tone. "God if we hadn't been there..."

"But we were. And that's all that matters." Kenny snapped vehemently. Then calming himself Kenny added. "We've been trying to get back to Fort Lauderdale, it won't be long before the military moves in and cleans all of this up. But if things get too bad we'll be able to get on my fishing boat and get far away from this. We saw a lot of bodies before we stumbled upon this place, and I honestly don't see how things could get worse. But we're a tough family Lee ain't nothing going to break us."

They may have only just met Kenny and his family, but both he and Lunnesa found themselves believing Kenny when he said that last bit. "Well we'll let you get back to work." He said as he and Lunnesa turned to leave.

But before they took more then two steps Kenny stopped them. "Hey Lee. I'm sorry about you know...what I said earlier." Kenny said awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't have much of a filter. Whatever pops in my head is bond to pop right out of my mouth, ya' know?"

He gave Kenny a noncommittal shrug. "It's not a problem Kenny, in all honesty with everything else it's not high on our list of problems."

Kenny gave him a thankful nod and said. "Thanks pal." Before turning back to the truck engine.

He and Lunnesa continued walking away, they both decided to go and do a real quick check on Clementine and Mari before they went to help Shawn with the fence. Amazingly Clementine, Mari, Katjaa, and Brex were all smiling and talking happily. "The four of you actually look relaxed." He said with a smile.

"Hello Lee. Clementine was just telling me about the first grade." Katjaa said giving Clementine the kind of indulgent smile only a mother could make.

He looked at Clementine who had Mari (still a squirrel) sitting on her lap and asked. "Oh really, and how's that?"

"It's easy." Clementine said quickly and proudly even as Mari puffed out her chest.

"Well yeah." He said, amused with their reaction.

"Wait I thought the two of you were eight years old. How come your only in the first grade?" Lunnesa asked cocking her head at Clementine and Mari.

"My mom is a doctor and my dad is an engineer. When we was five we went to South America. My mom was helping people in a hospital and my dad helped build a school and a dam." Clementine answered. Her voice made it obvious that the little girl was proud of her parents and that put a sad smile on both his and Lunnesa's faces. "Our mom and dad homeschooled me and Mari. When we came back this year the schools principal said we'd have to start in the first grade."

"That's why the first grade is so easy." Mari said in a tone that was an odd blend between bragging and whining. "Their teaching stuff we learned a long time ago."

Katjaa gave a small laugh and Brex looked at him and Lunnesa and said. "Their both really smart for their age." Clementine smile shyly and blushed slightly at the praise while Mari impossibly seemed to puff up even more with pride.

Still smiling Katjaa look at him. "Anyways, it's so peaceful here it's almost like we haven't seen people eating each other the last couple of days." Katja said and now he could see the ghosts in her eyes.

His smile melted as he saw that and he nodded. For a moment he tried to think of a topic that would steer the conversation away from their current situation. "So where is it that you work."

"I'm a veterinarian like Hershel here. But I deal with cats and dogs not horses and dairy cows." Katjaa answered sounding like someone who truly enjoyed their work. "What about you Lee?"

Not seeing the harm in answering he said. "I use to teach up at UGA."

"We can't give up just yet Lee." Brex said seriously while Katjaa watched him worriedly. "We have to hold on to hope that we can go back our normal lives."

He blinked realizing they thought he'd already given up. "No what I meant was, I got let go a while back."

"It was actually one of the reasons why we were already on our way out Atlanta when all of this started." Lunnesa explained. "If not I doubt we would have made it off of the campus."

He nodded irony not lost on him that the _worst_ experience of his and Lunnesa's life had actually been what saved them. He looked up at the sky from the sun's position his best guess was it was going on eight o'clock. "Well I better go and help Shawn especially if we plan on leaving today." With that he and Lunnesa turned and walked in the direction that Shawn and Duck had gone earlier.

It didn't take long before they came up to where Shawn was working on the inside of the fence with Sillean sitting next to him. While Duck and Mallard were pretending to drive a tractor that was attached to a large trailer stacked high with wood. "Hey Shawn, need some help?"

Shawn looked at and said. "Hey Lee, yeah could you hold this board for me?" Shawn gestured to a board that he was trying to nail diagonally across the fence.

"Sure no problem." He said and went over to hold the board.

Shawn got the first couple nails in then hesitated threw a glance at him before saying. "What you said, last night. About what you found in that fist house you went to...I think it hit home with my dad. I still don't think he fully realizes just how bad things are, he still thinks letting people in is more dangerous then those things. But I think he's stopped just thinking of them as sick people."

"Your dad's right, you should never discount the threat living people pose. Some of them are far worse then those things." Lunnesa said as she laid down.

Shawn looked at them before exchanging a look with Sillean then he asked Lunnesa. "What do you mean? I know those crazies back in the suburbs were, well crazy. But they were just desperate people surrounded by those things."

"She's right Shawn." He said back Lunnesa up. "If good people are desperate enough they'll do anything they have to, to survive. But while desperate people can be reasoned with, or are more likely to only shoot you in the leg, or kill you quickly there are those who won't. There'll be plenty of people who'll use all of this to do whatever they want, no matter what it is or who it hurts. Because their won't be any anyone around to stop them. And then there'll be people who'll just be broken and driven insane by all of this. And the longer it takes for things to get back to normal, the more people who die. The more evil people there'll be and the more power they'll have."

"That can't be right." Shawn said incredulously. "How could you know that?"

"Do you just have no faith in people?" Sillean demanded in the same tone as Shawn.

Lunnesa shook her head. "It not that we don't have faith in other people. Like Lee said there will still be plenty of good people out there, even if desperation and the need to survive drives them to extremes, they'll still good people. But we taught college level history we know all to well that there'll be plenty of evil people too, and just what they'll be willing to do."

"Even up to the 1950's and 1960's criminals of all kinds could openly flaunt what they were doing. Because it was very hard both completely prove they did it, or find someone willing and able to charge them. It wasn't until we had technology to prove guilt, cameras, DNA, finger printing that we really started seeing a drop in crime." As he spelled this all out he held Shawn's gaze and kept his voice low to keep Duck and Mallard out of the conversation. "When the gangs, cartels, and everyone else with enough hate and a personal grudge realize that right now nobody will be able to pin them with anything. What do you think will happen?"

Shawn went pale and Sillean flattened her ears both of them had looks of horrified realization on their faces. He nodded and said. "Like I said your dad's partly right you need to treat strangers with caution. But you need to be willing to give people a chance nobody is going to be able to get through this alone, your going to need people to defend against both the living and the dead. It's why when me and the others get down to Macon and I find my parents and my brother, I'm going to do my best to convince them that we need to go with Kenny and his family down to Fort Lauderdale."

Shawn nodded his head slowly but he still looked a bit shellsocked. Conversation between them more or less stopped instead they fell into a steady rhythm of cutting boards then nailing them along the fence. They did that for a good four or five hours before they were interrupted by Hershel calling out to them from the barn. "Lee! Would you mind coming to help me for a moment!?"

"Uh oh." Shawn said sharing a glance with Sillean.

"Uh oh?" He asked Shawn feeling very confused.

"Yeah the only time dad call someone away from work like that is if somethings gone wrong, or he's about to give them one of his 'talks'." Shawn said turning back to the fence.

"Don't worry about it." Sillean said with a shrug. "Dad's probably just wants to make sure your good with taking care of Clementine and Mari."

He and Lunnesa exchanged a look they were both pretty sure that Hershel wanted to talk about more then them taking care of Clementine and Mari. But they both still stood up and headed towards the barn. When they entered the barn they saw that Hershel breaking down hay bails and using a pitch fork to load the hay into a wheelbarrow, with Jessibell stand a few feet from him. Hershel glanced at them but said nothing while Jessibell watched both him and Lunnesa. Jessibell's stare wasn't judging or anything it was just an acknowledgment of their present. But he still felt awkward in the silence so he said. "I got to say this is a nice piece of land you've got here."

Hershel made an amused grunt and said. "If you had told me and Jessibell that we would still be doing this twenty years ago I would have told you, you were full of shit. My father was an angry abusive drunk and I hated him. I hated him so much that I refused to go to his funeral and to this day I still don't regret that decision. But for some reason I just couldn't sell this place despite me hating it because of my father."

Then Jessibell spoke up and added. "But now to us this is the farm where we raised our two daughters and our son. It's where our first wife is buried, and god willing it where we'll be buried too."

There was another minute of silence where none of them said anything. Then suddenly Hershel straightened and speared the pitch fork into a bail of hay and asked. "Can I give you some advice?"

That surprised both him and Lunnesa but he nodded and said. "Sure."

Hershel nodded again and said. "I appreciate your honesty last night, you could have lied or made excuses. Instead you were honest and owned you mistake. And I'd suggest that you make that kind of honesty a habit, because if things don't get better soon or if they worse before they do. You'll have to rly on the honesty of strangers and if those same strangers start questioning yours it may cost more then just your life, it may cost Clementine and Mari theirs."

"True, but we need to be careful who we tell. Just like your being careful on letting people in." Lunnesa said softly.

Jessibell raised an eyebrow but Hershel nodded and said. "Well at least you have the common sense to listen to an old man giving you advice." Before they could say anything else they heard the distant sound of a engine revving and a split second later there was a much louder scream. Even as he turned to run towards the sound of the scream Hershel yelled "Go! I'll get my gun!"

He ran out of the barn, and even from here a good seventy or eighty yards from where Shawn was working on the fence he could make out the lumbering forms of more monsters. He sprinted towards the fence as fast as his injured leg would allow which with the adrenaline pumping through his system was pretty fast. Lunnesa was limping along as fast as she could trying to stay at least within the range of their bond but she was still quickly falling behind. He could feel a headache starting to form in his head which was quickly building to a skull splitting migraine with each foot of distance gained between him and Lunnesa. He knew the risks of exceeding the distance of their bond limit but he couldn't stop or slow down.

He got within fifteen yards and he froze. He could clearly see one of Shawn's legs pinned under one of the front tire of the tractor, with at least eight or so of those things trying to break through the fence and get him. Sillean had bitten down on Shawn's pant leg and pulled then she gave up and pressed her shoulder against the tractor trying to push it back. Duck was still sitting on the tractor but now one of those things had him by the arm and was trying to him over the fence. Mallard was flying circles around the monster pecking at the monster's head but if the thing noticed or even cared it didn't show it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please if you read put a vote in the comments

**Choice 1:** Both Duck and Shawn are in danger what do you do?

**A.** Run to Duck and pull him to safety. If you choose this Duck is saved and Shawn die's lose 4 relationship points with Hershel and gain 2 relationship points with Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck. 

**B.** Run to free Shawn. If you choose this Kenny will save Duck lose 2 relationship points with Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck. Lee is alone and is suffering a bond limit headache you have a 13pos/7neg chance of freeing Shawn. *Positive outcome: Gain 2 relationship points with Shawn and 3 relationship points with Hershel. And gain shotgun ammo and a possible chance to return to the farm. *Negative outcome: Shawn die's but Sillean tell Hershel you tried no gain or loss with relationship points.

**C.** Your not unarmed and you know how to fight these things the only question now how to do it. ( **WARNING:** This choice is a divergence choice.)

*Pos modifier: none

*Neg modifier: Lee is alone -1 when dealing with groups of walkers, Lee is suffering from a bond limit headache -1 or -2 to speed of dealing with groups of walkers on the fence or -2 for dealing with/dodging groups of walkers out in the open, Lee is already injured -2 chance of getting a serious injury if injured.

**s** **ub option C1:** IT'S HAMMER TIME!! (Sorry couldn't resist. 😁😁) You've got a hammer on your belt put it to good use. Whether you go to Duck or Shawn first is decided by coin toss heads Shawn, tails Duck. If Duck first you save Duck, and have a 12pos/8neg of killing enough walkers to keep them from breaking through the fence and getting Shawn. If Shawn first have a 13pos/7neg chance of killing enough walkers to keep them from breaking through the fence and getting Shawn, and at the same time save Duck before Kenny arrives.

*Positive outcome: Save both Shawn and Duck. Gain 2 relationship points with Shawn, Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck. Gain 3 relationship point with Hershel. Gain shotgun ammo and a possible chance to return to the farm.

*Negative outcome: Fail to save either Shawn or Duck. Either lose reputation points with Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck while gaining points and rewards with Hershel and Shawn. Or gain reputation points with Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck while losing points with Hershel and Shawn dies.

**sub option C2:** Live bait. In situations like this when multiple people are in danger and can't get away or defend themselves, sometimes the best choice it to give the bad guys something else to chase. 8pos/12neg chance of drawing the attention of the walker grabbing Duck saving him. 13pos/7neg chance of Lee getting away without getting more injuries with a 12pos/8neg chance of Lee getting a serious injury. (Such as broken bones. He won't be bitten)

*Positive outcome: No new injuries. Save both Shawn and Duck. Gain 2 relationship points with Shawn, Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck. Gain 3 relationship point with Hershel. Gain shotgun ammo and a possible chance to return to the farm.

*Negative outcome: Fail to draw the attention of the walker grabbing Duck. No lose or gain of reputation with Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck. If injured minor injury increases chance of getting serious injury by 2 for future injury chances (will not affect Lee's performance in future choices _only_ injury chances) until injury heals. A serious injury may limit Lee's ability in future choices and/or limit what gear/weapons he can use, serious injury increases chance of getting serious injury by 3 for future injury chances and add a 5pos/15neg chance new serious injury proves fatal. (each serious injury increases chance of next acquired serious injury being fatal by 5 until injury is healed)

**Choice 2:** I was thinking of adding 3 Original Characters to the Pharmacy group.

**A:** Yes I want you to add 3 Original Characters to the Pharmacy group.

**B:** No I don't want you to add 3 Original Characters to the Pharmacy group.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Character Relationship system

 **0** :Mortal Enemy, **1** , **2** :Hated, **3** , **4** :Not Trusted, **5** , **6** :Disliked, **7** , **8** :Neutral, **9** , **10** :Liked, **11** , **12** :Trusted, **13** , **14** :Loyal, **15** , **16** :Lover/Family

 **Mortal Enemy:** This character will do anything to hurt or kill you

 **Hated:** This character will actively oppose and/or attack you

 **Not Trusted:** You have proven to be untrustworthy in this characters eye's they won't listen/believe you and are unlikely to back you up

 **Disliked:** This character has an obvious dislike for you and question your motives and reasons but there is still a good chance they'll listen to/help you

 **Neutral:** This character is completely neutral to you

 **Liked:** This character likes you their more likely listen to/help you but might back out if it's too dangerous

 **Trusted:** You have proven trust worthy in this character's eyes they'll believe your words before others and are likely to back you up in dangerous situations

 **Loyal:** You have earned this characters loyalty they are likely to take your side and back you up in almost any situation

 **Lover/Family:** This character sees you as family/a lover (depends if romance option is given/taken) this creates a nearly unbreakable bond between you and this character. This character will follow you through hell and/or go through hell for you.

**Lee's &Lunnesa's Relationship status with:**

**Clementine &Mari:** 12/16 Trusted: Your a stranger and you took their dad's tools. But you promised to stay with them no matter what and have been protecting them from walkers. The gun scares Clementine a little but both she and Mari are happy that she can defend herself.

**Shawn &Sillean:** 12/16 Trusted: You helped save them and defiantly saved Chet and Que even if they disapprove of you giving Clementine a gun.

**Officer Andre Mitchell &Rem:** 9/16 Neutral: You came clean about your past and have made a number of choices they approve of.

**Hershel &Jessibell: **9/16 Neutral: They are grateful that you helped save their son and appreciate that you made no attempt to hide your past from them. Both are worried that you gave Clementine a gun.

**Kenny &Ada:** 8/16 Neutral: They don't know much about you other than your name and that officer Mitchel seems to respect you. But you seem like a good enough guy to them.

**Katjaa &Brex:** 8/16 Neutral: They don't know much about you other than your name and that officer Mitchel seems to respect you. But they do think Clementine and Mari are adorable.

**Duck &Mallard:** 8/16 Neutral: They don't know much about you but are exited to meet Clementine and Mari.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you have ideas for OCs and you want me to hold off using them until we get to season 2 or later. That's fine by all means submit them, just specify which season you want me to wait and use them for. And if you want to wait that's fine because I'll be accepting new OC submission during the first episode of each season. This means I'll be accepting OC submissions for this season until the pharmacy is overrun and the group moves into the Motor Inn. And then submissions will open back up when we reach the point of Clementine getting close to meeting the Cabin group. Be warned there is no guarantee that any characters other then Clem, Christa, Kenny, And Lilly will survive season 1.

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Gender & Race:**

**Daemon's name & form(s): **Daemons aren't typically give typical human names like John, Paul, or Becky they're typically given names like Maximums, Lunnesa, Pollen, Mari, Talion things like that. If you don't add a name for your character's daemon I'll come up with one. (if your character is under the age of 18 and unsettle list the daemons four or five favorite forms)

 **Positive traits:** at least 3 for both the human and their daemon Examples: loyal, always level headed, caring, always has a sense of humor, ect. (please specify which traits belong to the human and which belong to the daemon they can have as many trait in common as you like but daemons _are not_ mirror images of their humans and they _do not_ act exactly the same as their humans they are reflections of that persons soul or inner most personality but they also have their own unique personality)

 **Negative traits:** at least 3 for both the human and their daemon Examples: short tempered, trust issues, drinking problems, doesn't play nice with others, ect. (please specify which traits belong to the human and which belong to the daemon they can have as many trait in common as you like but daemons _are not_ mirror images of their humans and they _do not_ act exactly the same as their humans they are reflections of that persons soul or inner most personality but they also have their own unique personality)

 **Skills no more then 3:** Examples: martial arts training, military training, playing the guitar, singing, ect. **(Don't underestimate the smaller skills and talents some times the most _meaningful_ characters aren't the ones who kick ass like John Wicked or doge bullets like an anime character)**

 **Description:** Give a brief description of the kind of person your character and their daemons are, give their back story where they're from, what their family's like, their former job, and if it applies how and why they got certain personality traits or skills.

Just a heads up there is a chance that I might have to tweak your character slightly for the story if that happens I will inform you and you will still get credit for the character. Here's an example: Let's say you submitted a character who is a school teacher that spent the first few weeks of the out break protecting a school bus full of kids until he was separated from them by a herd of walkers and has been on his own ever since. I might change that to a school teacher who was forcefully drafted into the national guard at the start of the out break to fight the walkers but saw the writing on the wall and deserted first chance he had to protect his student. Or maybe you've submitted a great character that I really want to use but they seem to be a little OP I might balance it out by say they lost an eye or were a kung fu master until they took an arrow to the knee. Hell it might just be a simple as your character being married to somebody else's character. There will be no major rewrites just small changes.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *Lee's daemon Lunnesa is a female brown and black furred Iberian wolf with silver eyes  
> *Clementine's daemon Mari is female and unsettled favorite forms rabbit, hummingbird, squirrel, and dove  
> *Officer Mitchell's daemon Rem is a female german shepard  
> *Shawn's daemon Sillean is a female sheltlands sheepdog  
> *Hershel's daemon Jessibell is a female whitetail doe  
> *Kenny's daemon Ada is a female golden retriever  
> *Katjaa's daemon Brex is a male otter with dark marking similar to glasses around his eyes  
> *Ducks daemon is female and unsettled takes the for of different types of duck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a long ass chapter coming at just shy of twenty-thousand words and all of it written after the holidays. Thankfully/hopefully other chapter should be smaller there fore easier to manage.

Hey everybody here's the next chapter the votes from the last chapter stand at:

**Choice 1:** 1vote for C1, and 1 vote for C2. Since we have a tie I decided to do three sets of coin tosses with a modifier of 10/10 (Tails for C1, Heads for C2) and whichever option wins two out of three sets is the one we go with.

First set: 10H/8T winner C2

Second set: 7H/10T winner C1

Third set: 10H/9T winner C2

 **Choice 2:** The votes I got for this one were...well unexpected (chuckles). I had one that said Yes, No, and Maybe all at the same time. And another that said to just do what I wanted. So in light of that I decided to add the three OCs.

The choice modifiers for these choices stand at:

**Choice 1** , Drawing away the walker grabbing Duck, 8pos/12neg. The coin landed 8 times on heads and 10 times on tails. The walker goes after Lee.

Lee getting injured, 13pos/7negs. The coin landed 5 times on heads and 7 times on tails. Lee gets hurt.

Lee's new injury being serious, 12pos/8neg. The coin landed 1 time on heads and 8 times on tails. I guess the gods of coin tosses really want to hurt Lee.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This means people are talking out loud"

_"This means a person and their daemon are speaking privately mind to mind"_

"This will be used for when someone is speaking through electronics like radios or walkie talkies"

Lee's POV

He looked around and saw just how much danger both Shawn and Duck were in. He could hear the wood planks of the fence starting to creek and groan, and Duck was just a kid who knew how long he'd manage to hold on. He couldn't think straight the pain in his head from exceeding his bond limit with Lunnesa and the pain that fed back to him from Lunnesa trying to run with broken ribs, destroyed any chance of him actually forming a plan. In the end he acted on the first though that clearly popped into his head, he need to distract those things.

Shawn spotted him and yelled. "Lee help me!" But he ignore the yell and ran for the fence angling away from Shaw, Duck, and the dead. "Lee!" Sillean yelled her voice full of panic. He spared the two of them a glance but he didn't change his course.

He climbed the fence as quickly as he could then ran a little farther before stopping. He was ten feet away from the monsters and a little bit behind, he started yelling as he pulled his blacksmiths hammer from his belt. "HEY! YOU UGLY UNDEAD SONS OF BITCHES WANT TO EAT SOMEONE!? THEN COME ON! I'M RIGHT OVER HERE! COME ON!" It had the desired effect six out of the eight dead things trying to get to Shawn turned and started shambling towards him, but the one holding Duck didn't turn. He quickly looked around and his eyes settled on a fist sized rock he picked it up and threw it as hard as he could. The rock slammed into the side of the creatures head jerking it to the side, the thing may not feel pain or too smart but the rock made it turn it's head and look at him. And the creature apparently decided he'd be easier prey because it let go of Duck and joined the others heading for him.

He started backing up slowly trying to kite the creatures father away from Shawn and Duck. Lunnesa had finally managed to catch up enough that she was within the max range of their bond limit so his headache stopped getting worse, and he was no longer at risk of having a seizure. But even with that his side and his head were screaming at him. He could fight through the pain in his side since his ribs weren't the ones broken, but his head was pounding so badly it blurred his vision slightly.

Doing his best to think through the pain. He decided his best chance was to deal with these things in a similar way as the group in the first house they scavenged. As the first two monsters reached him He kick the leading one in the knee sending it sprawling then he slammed his hammer into the head of the second killing it. He pulled his hammer free he threw a quick looked at the monster he knocked over he wanted to finish it before it got back up. But the other five were too close one of them would defiantly grab him if he tried. So he just kept backing up, he repeated the maneuver kicking out the knee of the closes monster then killing the next. But this time he'd underestimated the distance between him an the rest of the monsters as two of them lunged at him. One of them hit the body of the creature who's head he had buried his hammer into and fell with the body ripping his hammer from his grip. The second grabbed his right forearm.

A strangled yell forced it's way up and out of his throat as he simultaneously jumped back and slam his left fist into the creatures face. The things head snapped back and he felt it's nose collapse but it had no real effect. He started half running backwards half dragging the creature with him as he tried to keep distance between him and the rest of the monsters. He swung his fist again this time aiming for the monster's jaw. He heard a wet crack and the monster's jaw hung loosely and stopped biting the air, it couldn't bite him but that didn't mean it couldn't drag him down for the others. As he continued to pull both himself and the creature backwards he started slamming his left forearm into it's wrists trying to free his right arm. The first three of his strikes did nothing to break the monster's grip on his arm. It wasn't until he kicked it's knee and hit it's wrists at the same time that he broke free. But with only his left leg planted firmly on the ground the sudden loss of the monster pulling against him sent him stumbling back. He wasn't fast enough in getting his right leg behind him to steady himself.

He threw out his left arm to break his fall but his hand landed on a rock that came loos and caused his hand to roll. It felt like a bomb exploded in his wrist he heard as well as felt several loud cracks and pops in his wrist. Lunnesa started yelling his name both inside his head and out loud. The noise she was making drew two of the monsters away from him but the remaining three (including the one who's jaw he'd broken) were still bearing down on him. He started franticly crawling away from the monsters while holding his broken wrist to his chest.

The first of the three monsters had just started bend down reaching for him, when he heard the loud boom of a shotgun and the creature's head exploded. There was a second boom and another of the monsters heads exploded. Then both he and the third monster turned and saw Hershel and Jessibell standing near Lunnesa an old mossberg pump action held in Hershel's hands. Hershel racked the slide to his shotgun and fired killing the third and last monster near him, before Hershel turned his attention to the two heading towards him and the fence.

As he watched Hershel he also saw Duck run into Katjaa's arms. She and Brex immediately started look him and Mallard over for injuries. And while Kenny's attention was s focused solely on his family Ada looked around taking in the situation. He saw Ada turn and say something to Kenny. Kenny's head snapped around and after a moment of hesitation Kenny ran towards Shawn and Sillean with Ada right on his heels. Kenny scooped up a length of 2x4 as he ran and swung it like a baseball bat at one of the two things trying to get to Shawn launching it back and away from the fence. Then Kenny brought the 2x4 down in two powerful blows swing the 2x4 like ab axe cracking open the second monsters head.

Before the first monster Kenny had hit could get back onto it's feet Hershel blew it's head off. And just like that all of the monsters were dead. After taking a few seconds to look around making absolutely sure there were no other monsters then Kenny started to try and help Shawn out from under the tractor. Hershel hesitated before running over to Shawn and called out to him. "Are you alright!?"

He was already struggling back to his feet as he yelled back. "Yeah I'm alright! Go help your boy!" Hershel nodded then rushed over to help Shawn.

While Lunnesa didn't ask him if he was okay he could clearly feel her worry even through the layers of pain both of them were feeling. As he got up he did his best to console and reassure her that he was okay. Once he was standing he hugged his injured wrist to his chest, retrieved his hammer, and then slowly and carefully climbed back over the fence.

Once he was fully over the fence Lunnesa pressed her head against his thigh. "Your a god damn idiot." She said her voice hoarse.

He knelt down and started rubbing her head. "Hey I'm okay, _we're_ okay."

Lunnesa suddenly jerked back from him, glared at him, and yelled. "What the hell were you thinking!? Why the hell didn't you just bash in their heads from this side of the fence!? Why did you jump over the fence and try to take on that many by yourself!?"

He was taken back by her sudden out burst but answered. "There were too many of them. They would have broken through the fence and got to Shawn or pulled Duck off the tractor. It was the only way I could save them both." He didn't understand why Lunnesa was so upset. He knew that they both would have hated themselves if either Shawn or Duck died, and she would have really laid into him if he had done nothing. He reached across their bond to try and figure out why she was so upset. When Lunnesa realized what he was trying to do she tried to block her thoughts but between their shared pain and her own emotions she didn't have the self-control to do it.

He saw that she fully realized that if the monsters had gotten ahold of him she would have felt every second of pain that he did as they tore him apart. That scared her but worse then that while they were far from understanding what was happening. They knew that if one of those things bit him even if he was already dead -as they saw with the woman he'd killed before the monsters got to her- his body would come back and the possibilities attached to that terrified her. But he quickly realized that as much as the monsters and them nearly dying scared her. What really had her upset was how helpless she had felt since her ribs had stopped her from doing anything. The fact that if the monsters had gotten to him she couldn't do anything to keep them from dying that both scared her more then anything else and made her furious with herself. He hugged her head to his chest with his good arm doing his best to reassure her already knowing she wouldn't fully feel better until her ribs healed.

"Is she Alright?" A voice asked from his left. He looked and saw Hershel and Jessibell a few feet from them. He looked behind Hershel and saw Kenny supporting Shawn and helping him to walk towards the house.

He nodded. "She's alright just frustrated that she's injured."

Hershel and Jessibell shared a look, then they looked back at him and Jessibell asked. "And what about you? I know you said you were alright but your favoring your hand."

"Yeah I think I broke my wrist." He answered looking down at his hand.

"Right, well come on inside and I take a look at it for you." Hershel said then he looked at Lunnesa and added. "And I'll make sure you didn't make your side any worse." 

With that they all went towards the house letting Lunnesa set the pace, with both Hershel and Jessibell sticking close to them incase either him or Lunnesa needed help walking. As soon as they went in through the back door leading into the house's kitchen he heard Clementine and Mari yell. "Lee! Lunnesa!" Clementine came running towards him out of a doorway which he assumed lead to the dining room with Mari zipping ahead of her in hummingbird form.

Mari stopped and and hovered right in front of him for a second then started flying around him looking for injuries and asking rapidly. "Are you alright? Mr. Hershel said there were monsters. Did you get hurt?" Then Mari zipped down to Lunnesa then started zipping around her asking if she was okay.

Clementine ran up to him and stopped right in front of him, hands fidgeting nervously, and looked up at him her honey colored eyes wide with worry. "Are the monsters gone? Were you hurt?"

He did his best to give her a reassuring smile and said. "Don't worry all of the monsters are gone. I hurt my wrist but I'll be alright."

Clementine's eyes got impossibly wider and she asked. "Are you sure?"

That made his smile turn genuine. "I'm sure Clem it hurts but I'll be alright." 

"Hey Lee." Shawn called. He turned and saw Shawn sitting in a chair at a dinner table with his injured leg propped on another chair. "Thanks for what you did out there. _(chuckle)_ And it hasn't even been a full day since the last time you saved me."

"No problem Shawn." He said then he smiled and added. "But let's not try for three times in one day. What do you say?"

Shawn chuckled again. "Yeah. I don't think either of us could handle another one."

Then to his surprise Sillean walked over and pressed her side against his leg. "Thank you."

He reached down and gave Sillean a quick pat on her neck and repeated. "No problem." With that Sillean went back over to Shawn rubbing her head appreciatively rubbing her head against Lunnesa's shoulder as she went. He turned his attention over to where Duck and Mallard were being fussed over by their parents. "Are either of them hurt?"

Ada looked over at him giving him a grateful smile. "No their alright. Just a little shaken."

Then Kenny looked over at him eyebrow raised and a wry smile. "I'm not sure if that was the bravest thing or the craziest thing I've ever seen."

"Uh...I'm pretty sure she'd say it's the craziest." He said halfheartedly tilting his head down towards Lunnesa, who huffed in response.

Kenny shook his head and Ada giggled. But before they could say anything else Hershel walked back into the room carrying an old school doctors bag. "Lee can I get you to sit down right over here." Hershel pointed at a chair next to Shawn as he put his bag down on the table.

He sat down in the chair Hershel indicated and Lunnesa laid down next to him. Hershel knelt in front of Shawn and started poking and prodding Shawn's calf earning hisses and grunts of pain from Shawn. "Well your not going to be able to put any weight on it any time soon, and your going to have a limp for a few days. But nothings broken it's just a large and deep bruise."

"Thanks dad." Shawn said.

Hershel patted Shawn on the shoulder then turned to him and said. "Alright Lee let's take a look at that wrist." Hershel reached out and gently grabbed his arm then started to gently squeezing his wrist feeling the bones. The new lances of pain shooting through his wrist made him grit his teeth and fight the urge to yell and curse. "Hmm...you were right it's definitely broken. I don't feel anything out of place so I don't think it's too serious. However without an X-ray there's only one way to make sure there's no permanent damage." Hershel said letting go of his wrist then added. "I need you to make a fist."

"What?" Lunnesa demanded while he just looked at Hershel hoping he'd heard him wrong.

Hershel raised a placating hand and said. "I know it will hurt. You won't be able to do much of anything until the bones heal. And I know that the swelling may keep you from making a complete fist. But what you have to understand is, the tendons and muscles connected to your fingers run through your wrist. If you are unable to at least come close to making a complete fist it likely means you've damaged the tendons or muscles in your wrist. And you might permanently lose some of the function in your wrist and hand. Now if you have done more than break one or two of the smaller bones I might be able to do something to help. But I have to know the damage is there, because if I try to fix something that's not there I'll just be making things worse."

His medical knowledge didn't go beyond basic first-aid so he couldn't exactly argue. Silently cursing both himself and his luck he steeled his nerve and tried to ball his hand into a fist. Hershel poking and prodding his wrist had hurt but this was agony. He'd swear it felt like someone had poured molten metal into his wrist. But as much as it hurt he managed to make a fist.

"Good." Hershel said nodding his head.

Then they all jumped as they heard the front door slam open. Hershel snatched up his shotgun, he stood pulling his hammer, Kenny moved infront of Katjaa and Duck, and both Ada and Sillean moved to the front of their little group.

Then officer Mitchell charged into the kitchen shotgun raised with Rem by his teeth bared ready for a fight.

Everyone froze for a second then Hershel lowered his shotgun and said. "Andre it's you." That seemed to be some in spoken que as everyone relaxed. Kenny visibly deflated in relief, Ada and Sillean went back to Shawn's and Kenny's sides, and he lowered his hammer. He was about to put his hammer away and sit back down but Hershel pulled his attention back to officer Mitchell and Rem. "My god are the two of you alright?"

He took a closer look at both officer Mitchell and Rem. While everyone else had relaxed rather quickly both officer Mitchell and Rem were still tense their eyes wide with crazed adrenaline fueled expressions on their faces. Officer Mitchell still had his shotgun half raised, and while her teeth weren't still bared Rem was still half in a fighting stance. There was some fresh blood on officer Mitchell's uniform and more on the butt of his shotgun. Rem had even more blood all over her vest and muzzle, and he saw a tear in her vest right in the center of her back that looked like a bite.

Slowly ever so slowly both officer Mitchell and Rem relaxed their stances. "T-This isn't our blood." Officer Mitchell said the slightest tremor in his voice. "What about all of you? We heard gunshots as we were coming down the road."

Shawn was the one to answer saying. "Yeah I was reinforcing the fence and I was letting the kid Duck play on the tractor. Like an idiot I left the keys in the tractor. Duck accidently turned the tractor on and I got trapped under it, then seven of those things showed up and tried to get through the fence to get to us. And they would have too if Lee hadn't jumped the fence and distracted them long enough for my dad to get there with his gun."

Officer Mitchell and Rem exchanged a look then looked around at all of them. Then officer Mitchell focused on him. "You tried to fight seven of those things by yourself?" 

"With only a hammer?" Rem added her own disbelief clear.

"Fighting them wasn't exactly my plan." He said rubbing the back of his neck with his good hand. "Wasn't trying to do anything other than keep them distracted. And I'm glad that's all I tried to do or I would have gotten a lot worse then a broken wrist."

Officer Mitchell shook his head then turned his attention to Hershel and asked. "And what about you I thought you swore never to fire a gun in anger the same time you swore off drinking?"

"Desperate times, call for desperate measures." Jessibell answered sounding reluctant even as she said it.

"Well now that you know what happened here tell us what happened to you. Why are the two of you are covered in blood? And where's Chet and Que?" Shawn asked.

He felt his stomach drop when he saw the expressions on officer Mitchell's and Rem's faces. Officer Mitchell hesitated for a few moments, then he started talking like he was giving a report but the slight tremor back in his voice. "We got to the O'Lairly family farm. The front door was ajar so we announced ourselves and went inside. There was signs of a struggle, and we started searching downstairs for Chet and his mother. When we went into the kitchen we saw Chet laying on the floor with his throat ripped out, his mother was next to him and she was...she was..." Officer Mitchell's attempt to be professional and calm crumbled as he covered his face with a hand. "God...his own mother. She killed him and was eating him."

The shock and horror they all felt at hearing the news was palpable in the air around them. Officer Mitchell didn't seem how to be able to say more, but Ada picked up where he left off. Ada's voice was soft somewhere between hollow and haunted, her ears were flat against her skull, her tail tucked between her legs, and she seemed to be trying to stare a hole in the floor as she spoke. "Once his mother knew we were there she attacked, and Andre did what he need to. When we checked we saw that she only had a single bite on her arm but it was looked like the bite hit an artery. As far as we could tell she bled out while try call for help with her cellphone."

"We lost cell service early yesterday morning." Jessibell said softly.

Ada nodded slowly and continued in the same hollow and haunted voice. "The gunshot attracted a group of ten more of those things. Both the front and backdoors were still open things got pretty hairy very quickly. We were holding our own but then Chet woke up, he grabbed me and did his best to chew through my vest. It...it was really close but we killed them all and we hurried back here. So when we heard the gunshots from here as we were coming up the road..."

They were all silent for several minutes then Hershel let out a long sigh and seemed to age twenty years in a span of a few seconds before saying. "Well there's nothing to be done about it now. At least the two of you made it back here safely, and as you heard there were no life threatening injuries here. Why don't the two of you sit down, try to relax and calm down." Ada didn't say anything but officer Mitchell nodded and simply sat on the floor next to Ada with his back against the kitchen island. After another second Hershel turned his attention back towards him. "Alright it's good that you were able to make a fist. I'm going to go ahead and put a splint on it, but it would be best if you go to a hospital and get a cast put on it."

(Author's note: okay I know this next conversation might break cannon a little more than necessary. But Lee was shown in game as being a really smart man, especially because he was a teacher at a large and well known college. He might not be the most knowledgeable person around but he can for the most part put two and two together.)

"With everything we saw I don't think trying to go to a hospital would be such a good idea." He said cautiously as Hershel started pulling out supplies from his bag.

"Yeah, every poor desperate bastard and their mother will flock to them. And their the first places to be raided when shit really hits the fan." Kenny said sounding both frustrated and annoyed.

Both he and Lunnesa were pretty sure they heard first Mari then Clementine softly mutter 'swear' when Kenny said 'bastard' and 'shit'. Then officer Mitchell spoke from the floor. "Not likely there be officers protecting the hospitals."

"No offence officer." Ada spoke up calmly. "But before our family moved to Florida we lived in Mississippi we were forced to move after Hurricane Katrina. We saw first hand as desperate people raided grocery stores and hospitals. Sure the police and national guard eventually got things under control, but that didn't stop the initial panic. And I think we all would agree that whatever is going on, it's worse then a hurricane."

"And a lot of police officers are going to be killed early on." Sillean added with a sympathetic tone and expression. "Either because they'll be caught on their own by a large group of those things. Or they won't fully know what's going on and aim for the body instead of the head."

Officer Mitchell and Rem both seemed to deflate further hearing that. Then Lunnesa said. "It's not just because of that, that we think going to a hospital is a bad idea. Hospitals is were a lot of the people who get bitten by those things are going to go to get help."

The air in the room was suddenly very tense. "Wait are you saying that if we get bit we'll turn into one of those things?" Shawn asked an edge of disbelief and fear on his voice.

"That depends." He said before gesturing to Shawn, Sillean, officer Mitchell, and Rem and asking. "Did any of you see the man who attacked us when we were running for our cars last night?"

Shawn, officer Mitchell, and Rem all shook their heads or said no. But Sillean spoke up and said. "He was still laying on the ground where he was when he died."

"Wait what are y'all talking about?" Kenny asked looking at them all. "And what does this have to do with you talking about bites?"

"When we-" He gestured to himself, Lunnesa, Clementine, and Mari. "-met officer Mitchell and Shawn they were being attacked by two people -a man and a woman- were trying to steal Shawn's truck. Even with both me and officer Mitchell shooting at them they kept attacking us so we did what we had to do." He said the last bit with regret in his voice. "The gunshots drew the attention of a lot of those things. So we had to lay low before we could get to the cars. As we were going the woman attacked again only this time she was one of those things. It looked like a few of those things had fed on her after she was already dead. I don't know about any of you but I haven't seen any of those things that doesn't have at least one bite on them. The man had been wearing umpire gear so it might have been enough to keep the dead from biting and feeding on him. It would explain why he didn't turn into one of those things when the woman did."

"So your saying that if someone is bitten after someone dies they'll turn into one of those things?" Kenny asked his voice slightly distant as he thought it over. "But if they die and don't get bit they won't turn?"

"That's what I'm thinking. It makes sense when you think about it." He said nodding as he an Lunnesa went through the logic in their heads.

"That would suggest it's a disease of some kind. Only a disease would need a living body to spread. A disease couldn't spread like that through an already dead body." Hershel said adding his voice to the conversation.

"Couldn't it? You can get all kinds of diseases from dead bodies." Ada said and Kenny nodded along with her.

Hershel shook his head -in the same way he sometime did when one of his students had missed something obvious in a lesson- and said. "It doesn't work like that. Bodies can only pass diseases that had spread through them while they were alive. Or spread diseases that are only found in decaying flesh."

"That's assuming that this disease or whatever this is, is natural and not man made." Lunnesa said flatly causing a stunned silence.

That silence was broken by Sillean asking. "Your a fan of conspiracy theories aren't you?"

"No not really." He said. "We don't believe that aliens have come to earth, that the government is brainwashing people through their phones, or the Illuminati is anything more than a legend. And I'm not a medical expert I'm just a college history teacher. If you look closely at historical events it proves both how people are likely to act with everything that's happening. And that anyone who thinks that every government and military in the world isn't pursuing every avenue of weapons research -including biological warfare- is fooling themselves. And it would be far from the first time that a government or military tested something only for it to go horrible wrong."

"If you had told us said research would make the dead start walking. We would have said _you_ had been listening to too many conspiracy theories. But we've all seen what's happening out there, and I think we can agree there's nothing natural about the dead walking around eating people." Lunnesa added dryly when he finished.

"It could also be the wrath of God." Brex said softly. Which caused Hershel's brows to pull together and Jessibell's ears to flick irritably in obvious disagreement but neither of them voiced an argument.

Again there was silence and this time he was the one who spoke saying. "I'd prefer to believe this is something that escaped from a lab somewhere."

"And why do you say that?" Jessibell asked.

"Because at least then we have a fighting chance." He said resignedly. Not wanting the silence to start up again he tried to move the conversation back to the original topic. "But anyways that's why I don't think going to a hospital is a good idea. If someone gets bit and it hits an artery and they get to a hospital before they bleed out, they'll turn in the hospital and start attacking people. With all of the panic a lot of people are going to get seriously hurt and die at hospitals. And if they were bitten before they died, or worse if one of them comes back in a morgue full of dead bodies..."

"God." Kenny said softly his voice and expression full of horrified realization. "Every damn hospital anywhere near this thing will turn into an all you can eat buffet."

He nodded sadly and both he and Lunnesa could see that Kenny's expression was mirrored on every adult and their respective daemons faces. Duck and Mallard seemed nervous the way kids do when their upset because those around them were even if they didn't know why. Clementine and Mari were a different story they both looked truly scared. He didn't know if they could fully grasp the ramifications of what they were talking about. But he knew without a doubt that they understood enough to be afraid.

"That begs the question-" Officer Mitchell started speaking drawing his attention away from Clementine and Mari. "-what happens if we get bitten but it's not serious and you don't die soon after? Will the bite be enough to kill you on it's own, even if you only get bitten on the hand? Or will you only be in danger until the bite heals?"

Officer Mitchell, Rem, Shawn, and Sillean all looked at Hershel and Jessibell. Kenny and Ada looked to Katjaa and Brex. While he and Lunnesa look back and forth between both vets and their daemons.

"I-I don't know." Katjaa said looking scared bringing a hand half way to her mouth.

"Hmm. It would make sense that if whatever this is needs a dead body it would be weaker in a living one. Since the immune system would be able to attack it." Jessibell said with a thoughtful expression but she didn't seem to sure even as she said it.

Kenny huffed and said. "Either way it would be in everyone's best interest to avoid being bitten at all." They all nodded silently.

After a moment he looked at Hershel and asked. "How long until I can use my hand again."

"It will take about eight weeks for your wrist to fully heal." Hershel said as he started putting away what he hadn't used to splint his wrist.

"I might not have the luxury of waiting that long." He said trying his not to sound like he was arguing or complaining.

Hershel stopped and looked at him for a moment then he then he gave a heavy sigh and said. "You can't use your wrist for at least four weeks after five or six weeks you can start trying to use your wrist again. You will have to be careful Lee or you'll risk rebreaking your wrist when it's half healed, it can go from a minor to a major break, or you could even lose the use of your hand." When he nodded and said he understood Hershel sighed again then turned his attention to Lunnesa and said. "Alright it's you turn, may I?"

Lunnesa gave him a single nod then Hershel began gently pressing against Lunnesa's ribs eliciting several sharp yelps and whines from her. It took several minutes but then Hershel stood up and said. "Well you seem to be healing how I'd expect give it another two days and you'll be fully healed but 'till then you'll have to be just as careful. Understand?" When Lunnesa said she understood Hershel grabbed his doctors bag and he and Jessibell left the room.

After that they all simply tried to relax after everything had happened. It was another twenty minutes before a small crowed of people came into the house, most of whom rushed to Shawn and Sillean When they saw Shawn was injured. Hershel and Jessibell came back and helped Shawn convince the new arrivals that he was alright. Then the attention of the new arrivals turned to officer Mitchell and Rem to make sure they were alright.

Once that was all settled Hershel did a round of introductions for every body. Hershel's wife Annette with her grass hopper daemon Brigan, Hershel's oldest daughter Maggie with her sable antelope daemon Maxwell (aka Max), and Hershel's youngest child Beth with her mockingbird daemon Ezekiel. Had apparently taken Shawn's truck into town before he and Clementine had been woken up by Kenny. And while there had run into some family friends who often helped out on their family's farm. Otis who had a beagle daemon named Lady, Otis's wife Patricia who had a prairie dog daemon named Oscar, and some kid named Jimmy who surprisingly had a white tailed buck daemon named Tyrion.

(AN: I didn't do physical descriptions for the characters listed above. Both because they look how they did in the TV show and because this chapter will be long enough as it is)

[](https://imgur.com/GvTVDfZ) This is a Sable Antelope. And fun fact while Sable Antelopes are peaceful herbivores they are also nicknamed 'Lion killers' I figured this matched Maggie's personality.

And from what they all said the town was basically gone, everyone had either left or were killed. Then Otis asked how he and Shawn had gotten hurt and why officer Mitchell and Rem were covered in blood. Which led to a recap of what happened at the fence. And this time he was the one who described what happed to officer Mitchell and Rem so they wouldn't have to repeat it. This lead to a round of thanks from Shawn's mother and sisters and a predictably shocked and sad silence for Chet and his mother.

After a few minutes Patricia and Annette suggested that they have lunch. They all sat down and had a quick lunch, it was a bit surreal they all talked but not once did any of them mention the dead or anything about them. They talked about anything and everything getting to know one another. But it was almost like they were all trying to forget what was happening outside. And why they, a group of complete strangers who would never have met otherwise were even having this conversation.

A couple of hours later Kenny looked at his watch and said. "Hershel, Annette thanks for letting me and my family stay here last night and thanks for the food. But we're going to have to get going." Then Kenny looked at him and added. "Especially if we what to get to Macon before sun down, and I don't like the idea of those bastards being able to sneak up on us in the dark."

He responded by saying. "We'll need to grab our guns and our packs then we'll meet you at your truck."

"Are you going to need help?" Ada asked eyeing his wrist.

"Yeah the two of you are pretty banged up." Kenny added.

"Yeah it's far from the barn to your truck." He said halfheartedly.

"Alright see you in a minute." Kenny said then patted him on the shoulder as he and his family walked out of the house.

Hershel told him that his and Clementine's guns were in a gun cabinet in the back of the closet under the stairs. He thanked Hershel for the information then thank him and Annette for their hospitality, then shook hands and said goodbye to everyone. With that he left the dining room with Lunnesa by his side, and Clementine and Mari (who was currently a dove and was perched on Clementine's shoulder) following close behind. He made a quick detour to the closet Shawn had mentioned and grabbed both his shotgun and Clementine's .22. He slung knew that he wouldn't be using the shotgun anytime soon but he wasn't going to leave it behind especially since he still had ten shells left for it. He was also happy to see that while Clementine was still very cautious about holding her .22 but she didn't seem scared of it like she had been last night. They walked out of the house and to the barn to retrieve their packs. Once they were in the barn they quickly rolled up their sleeping bags and strapped them back to the bottoms of their packs.

He was trying to figure out the best way to carry both his and Lunnesa's packs over to Kenny's truck with both a bum leg and arm. Then Clementine asked. "Umm...Lee? Can I change my cloths? Mine smell bad."

He was honestly surprised that she felt the need to ask. But then he had to remind himself she was only eight so her parents probably had a rule in place to keep her from creating too much laundry. He knew his parents had, had a similar rule with him and his brother when they were her age. "Of course Clementine you can change in one of these empty stalls." He said gesturing at the horse stalls around them, then he handed her a plastic trash bag. "Here you can put your dirty cloths in here."

Clementine grabbed a new set of cloths and went into one of the empty horse stalls. A few minutes later he found a way to carry both his and Lunnesa's packs and Clementine came out of the stall. She was still wearing her blue and white baseball hat. But Clementine was now wearing a pink short sleeve T-shirt with a unicorn on the front, and a pair of blue jeans. Clementine put the bag with her dirty dress in her pack and they headed out to Kenny's truck. He had just managed lift all three packs into the bed of Kenny's truck when he felt someone tap his shoulder.

He turned and found Hershel and Jessibell standing there. Hershel handed him a full box of fifty shotgun shells and said. "I can never thank you enough for saving my son. I can never repay that debt. But the very least I can give you this and hope it will keep you and the girl safe."

"We also wanted to make it clear that you are always welcome here." Jessibell said kindly then with a warm smile towards Clementine and Mari she added. "All of you are always welcome."

After their standoffish attitude towards him and Lunnesa last night and an hour ago. Seeing this sudden and genuine change actually left both him and Lunnesa feeling rather touched. He accepted the box of shotgun shells and reached out to shake Hershel's hand. And Lunnesa spoke up speaking for both of them. "Thank you."

Hershel and Jessibell both accepted the thanks then they turned and headed back to the house. As he and Lunnesa watched them go they received another surprise officer Mitchell and Rem came out of the house and met Hershel and Jessibell on the porch. They talked and officer Mitchell gestured towards them then Hershel nodded and they shook hands.

"What's that about?" Kenny asked from right behind him.

He looked over at Kenny then turned his attention back to officer Mitchell as he walked towards them. "I don't know."

Officer Mitchell walked right up to them and asked. "Do you mind if we come along with you?"

"You want to come with us?" He asked not trying to hide his surprise. He had fully expected for officer Mitchell to stay here at the farm with Hershel's family.

Rem nodded seriously and said. "Like Andre said this morning we're following your advice."

He and Kenny exchange a look and Kenny raised a questioning eyebrow at him. Then Kenny shrugged and said. "Sure, why the hell not. It'll be good to have someone who can shoot."

Officer Mitchell nodded then he and Rem went over to their squad car. Then he, Clementine, Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck all piled into the truck. Luckily Kenny's truck was an old 1960's Chevy. The old solid iron kind that could complete destroy one of the newer plastic or fiberglass vehicles, while only getting a dent in it's bumper. So while it only had two doors it had a back seat with more than enough room for Katjaa, Clementine, Duck, and their small daemons. And in the front seats there was just enough room for Ada and Lunnesa too sit comfortably upfront with him and Kenny.

As they left the farm and started on what would likely be a several hour drive Lunnesa laid down to rest her ribs. As she did she let her mind wander in no particular direction. As she did he only half paid attention to her thoughts as he carefully studied the things around them as they drove. That is until one random thought caught his attention. "Hmm...Walkers." he muttered softly to himself.

"What was that?" Ada asked quizzically.

"Hmm?" He said said as he was pulled from his own thoughts. "Oh. It was a random thought Lunnesa had she had an idea on what we could call those things 'Walkers'. You know short for the 'the walking dead'. It's certainly better than calling them 'monsters' or 'things' it makes them seem more...real. And less...like something out of a movie you know."

"I guess." Kenny said slowly sounding unsure. " 'Walkers' huh? Well at least we have something to call them."

...

Meanwhile in Macon

Unknown POV

_Whooo-PONG_

_Thump_

"Huff, Huff, Huff"

_Whooo-PONG_

_Thump_

_Whooo-PONG_

_Thump_

_"Find me a way out of here Talion!"_ He yelled through his bond to his daemon where she was flying above his head.

_"I'm trying!"_ She yelled back.

It was a bright sunny day with a temperature from the high seventies or low eighties with a constant breeze keeping things from being too hot. If things were normal he'd be at school or out skating or doing something else with his friends. But then everything went straight to hell in a matter of a few days. The fucking dead were coming back and fucking eating people, he'd seen just about everyone he'd ever know get slaughtered.

...

He lived in a trailer park with his mother and the douchebag he called a stepfather, on the outskirts of Dayton. He'd been at school when they suddenly been told to evacuate and go home immediately. The school had just started to empty when a extra large airport tour bus (one of the ones that looks like multiple buses put together) slammed through a guardrail and into a tree not fifty yards from school grounds. Seeing the accident a lot of students ran over to help he was still alive because he had staid back unsure if or how he could help. Once a few of the doors had been pried open at least two hundred of those things came flooding out. They tore into anyone they could reach human and daemon alike. Thinking back on it now he didn't see how so many of them had been in the bus, the only thing he or Talion could think of was that people had pack in as tightly as possible in a desperate attempt to escape alive.

[ ](https://imgur.com/yN6pd3x)

After that everything turned into a mass panic where everything turned into a 'every man for themselves' kind of situation. He usually rode the bus to get to and from school. But by the time he had unfrozen from his shock most of the busses had already taken off some with students some without. The only busses left had either crashed or had been swarmed and their drivers killed. He'd been tempted to just run for it like so many others. But he had always been a realist and a bit of a pessimist. So he knew the chances of making it very far before some of those things dragged him down were slim to none.

So he sprinted back into the school and went straight to the gym. He used a fire extinguisher to break the lock on the door for the sport equipment. He went in and grabbed a football helmet and a set of football pads to protect his shoulders and chest. Then he grabbed an aluminum baseball bat before he started running for home.

He'd had to fight his way through a dozen or so of those things to get home. His step-douche was no where to be found but there had been a large amount of blood infront of the door. He couldn't care less about his step-douche he just hoped it wasn't over quickly. He knew his mother would more than likely be at work but he couldn't bring himself to care. While he had never been the most respectful person he'd never hated his mother until two years ago.

His grandfather had died of a heart attack at the age of fifty-nine. A few months later his grandmother used his grandfather's old .22 rifle to kill herself while his little sister Violet was sitting right infront of her. For some reason he couldn't understand his mother blamed Violet for his grandmother's choice. Violet had gotten into some trouble at school but so had he. So he didn't believe his mother when she used that as the excuse for sending Violet to a private school for hopelessly out of control children. His grandmother had decided that she didn't want to live without her husband of almost forty years. And his mother blamed his nine year old, _nine year old_ sister for it. All because after his grandmother had killed herself Violet had frozen and just sat there watching cartoons. And to drive the point home Violet's daemon Centauri had settle. It was unheard of for someone's daemon to settle before they were at the very least sixteen. He'd looked it up someone's daemon settling so young was a great big warning sign of either a manger mental disorder, one of the murdering kind. Or of a major traumatic experience especially if their daemon settled in a form not normal for them. Centauri settled as a Peregrine falcon when he had spent nearly every moment as different species cat large and small. The few times he'd ever seen Centauri turn into a bird was when he turned into a red tail hawk like Talion so the two of them could fly together. So seeing Centauri settle as a bird let alone as one he'd never become before scared both him and Talion. His mother blaming and essentially getting rid of Violet for something out of her control. He had lost all respect for his mother and a part of him hated her but he kept that to himself. Talion on the other hand while she never came out right and said she hated their mother the way she acted towards her and her daemon made it clear how she felt.

So he didn't feel guilty as he grabbed the keys to his step-douche's crappy ass Camaro and drove away. He didn't know exactly where Ericson's Boarding School was except that it was about a hundred miles from Richmond North Carolina. But that didn't matter, if the world was going to hell he was going to find his little sister.

...

Which brought him to where he was now. Step-douche's Camaro had broken down fifty miles back. And he was now running through a section of Macon on the edge of of the city that was nothing but houses and a seemingly never ending supply of the dead. His football pads and helmet had protected him and allowed him to muscle through a few of the dead. But he was a skater so he didn't have the mass to really bull through them, so he kept swinging his bat. He'd gotten used to the high pitched whistle as he swung his bat and the loud _PONG_ sound it made as it connected with a skull. He'd long since figured out that a really strong swing might put a dent in the forehead of one of the dead, and if he was lucky knock it down. But a hard swing to the side of the head was far more likely to drop them permanently or knock them down.

But the more he moved through the city the more of the dead he saw and he was running out of places to run. And if Talion didn't find him a way out he'd be dragged down in a matter of moments. Since Talion had settled when they were sixteen and she settled as a bird they'd spent the last two years increasing their bond limit, and now had their bond limit at the maximum 70 yards. So she could both fly high and a good distance from him add that to the fact that she could easily see a mile in any direction in good light. It only scared him more that all she could see was more large groups of dead around every corner.

_BANG...BANG,BANG...BANG._

The gunshots came from somewhere to his right the distraction nearly got him grabbed, but he dodged as Talion banked and flew towards the sound. _"There are two kids in a backyard over there! One of them has a gun and there are three of those things after them!"_

 _"What!?"_ He demanded. He was interrupted as a little girl who he'd guess was about ten that was missing an arm, an eye, and half the hair on her head came at him. His stomach twisted and he felt sick as he brought his bat down in an over headed swing like he was chopping wood and split her skull. For the moment no other dead were within immediate reach of him. So he paused to look through Talion's eyes. Sure enough he saw two boys neither of them could have been older then thirteen with their backs against a fence. One of them had a gun and was struggling to reload it the other seemed to be freaking out and five of the dead were after them. He also noticed something Talion hadn't the backyard the boys was in was surrounded by a six foot chain link fence with plastic slats in it. But behind the fence was a narrow alleyway the alley entrance closest to him was completely blocked by an abandoned garbage truck. The alley was completely empty and from what he could tell the other end of the ally opened to a street with fewer dead. The only problem he had was figuring out how to get over the fence. There were too many dead for him to clime the fence.

[ ](https://imgur.com/gN06lDn)

He focused on what his own eyes could see. He only had a few seconds before more of the dead were on him. He quickly looked towards the fence the boys were behind there were already a dozen dead trying to get through the fence. But not to far from the fence was a UPS truck crashed into a tree and a tan four door Sudan T-Boned into the side of the truck. _"How far is that UPS truck from the fence?"_

 _"Ten feet, why?"_ She asked most of her attention still on the two boys.

_"Good I can jump ten feet."_ He answered and started running.

Talion's POV

" _What!? Jump!?"_ She asked her attention breaking away from the two boys she was watching fighting for their lives. She quickly scanned through William's thoughts and saw his plan. _"You better hurry. I'll try to buy you time."_

She made several strong flaps of her wings to get a boost of speed then tucked her wings to her sides and dove 40 yards straight down. She truly loved being a Red-tailed Hawk her max speed in a dive was 120 mph it was the most invigorating rush ever. She dove right for the leading monster once she was close enough she flared her wings swung her talons forward and let loose a hunting shriek. "Tsseeeeeer!" She racked her talons across the eyes of the dead trying to blinding it.

She didn't continue her attack already knowing that this thing didn't feel pain and wouldn't hesitate to try and grab her. She flapped over and past the leading dead's head. Then as she flew over the head of the second dead she half heartedly racked her talons across the top of it's head and let loose another hunting shriek. She had the full attention of those two and she was getting them away from the kids but the third hadn't even looked her way.

She didn't want to risk the attention of the two already after her, so she couldn't go after it. _"Damit! William you need to hurry!"_ She yelled through their bond as she did her best to dodge and keep the attention of the other two dead.

Meanwhile

William's POV

He was only partly aware of Talion diving into the backyard as he ran towards the back of the Sudan. He slammed his shoulder into and knocking over what was once a tall asian woman who wasn't wearing anything but blood and bite marks. The next dead in his way was a fat black guy with his intestates hanging out of a large hole in his stomach. He'd learned the hard way when he passed through Lake City -on his way to the Georgia state line- not to take on any of the dead of this weight class head on. Instead at the last moment he ducked under one of it out stretched arms and jabbed his bat into the back of it's knee making it fall flat on it's face.

There was easily still several hundred of the dead around him. But now there wasn't any more dead directly between him and the Sudan. He jumped onto the trunk of the Sudan and ran up onto the roof and not slowing down he jumped towards the UPS truck. A lot of serious skaters like himself knew at least some parkour even if they weren't parkour masters. It helped with doing tricks and more importantly taught them how to take a fall without getting seriously hurt. So it was easy for him to plant his hands on the top of the truck and use his momentum to swing his legs onto the truck. It was sloppy and he was pretty sure he bruised his shins. But it was better then coming up short and hanging from the side of the truck, like a worm on a hook.

He heard Talion yell in his head. _"_ _Damit! William you need to hurry!"_

Resisting the urge to snap back he quickly stood backed up to the edge of the truck then ran forward and jumped. He easily crossed the ten foot gap and cleared the top of the fence. He bent his knees as he landed to absorb the impact and immediately fell forward into a shoulder roll. He'd done this move so many times from wiping out on his board that it was instinct. So much so that when his forward momentum stopped he wasn't sprawled out or disorientated like most noobs would be. Instead he stopped in a half crouch ready to run and as a bonus he didn't even drop his bat. 

It only took looking up and realize that Talion had two of the dead covered but one of them was still going for the kids. Both of whom and their daemons were staring at him in open mouthed shock. He ran for the dead after the two kids he gripping his bat and yelled. "Hey fugly!"

The dead man wearing the torn remains of a geek squad uniform turned towards him. He swung his bat up in a vicious underhanded swing. This time the high pitched whistle like _W_ _hooo_ sound of his bat sailing through the air and the satisfying _PONG_ of impact, immediately followed by wet and meaty _CRACK_. The creature was knocked flat on it's back. Not wasting any time he switched his grip on the bat and brought it down in a over headed swing. With it's head trapped between his bat and the ground it's face caved in.

He turned and wasn't surprised to see the other two had lost all interest in Talion and were coming right at him. They probably started after him the moment he yelled 'Hey fugly!' but he already had a system for handling multiple dead at once. He ran forward right for the two dead. He swung his bat low and hard at the first of the dead a white kid about his age who was missing his throat. His bat connected with the dead's shins knocking it's legs out from under it and tossing them high into the air. He didn't try for a killing blow instead he focused on the second dead a older white guy wearing a business suit who from the front looked unharmed. He dodged around it's arms while also grabbing it and yanking it forward making easier to get behind it. That's when he saw the damage most of the dead man's back was gone. He brought his bat up slammed it down onto the back of the dead man's head. The dead business man dropped to it's knees he swung again causing it to fall on top of the first with a sizable dent in the back of it's skull. Sadly it wasn't quiet enough the business man was still moving weakly another swing fixed that, and two more finished the dead kid.

All and all from the time he jumped onto the Sudan to now was three maybe four minutes. He took a second to shake out his arms and shoulders the amount strength it took to take these things down really made him sore. It was almost enough to make him wish he was jock instead of a skater then he would all the muscles he'd need. He looked over at the two kids who were still staring at although they didn't seem quit as shocked now.

"Are you guys okay?" He asked but he didn't move since he didn't want to get close to them and scare them.

The boy with the gun had ash-blond hair, pale skin, he was wearing a leather aviator jacket that was obviously meant for a man, they boys eyes were baby blue, and his daemon was currently some kind of lemur and was hanging on his arm.

The other boy had dark auburn hair, lots of freckles, his eyes were an interesting mix of green and brown, he had a weird silver necklace with a dragon, and his daemon was currently a rattle snake and wrapped around his neck.

The two boys just kept staring at him, at least the kid with the gun wasn't pointing it at him. Talion landed on his shoulder and asked again. "Are you okay? Were any of you hurt?"

"N-no." The lemur daemon said hesitantly.

"Who are you?" The rattle snake daemon demanded surprisingly with a male voice and giving them a piercing glare. It was more than the natural look daemons eyes took when they turned into predators. It was what his grandfather would have called 'a snipers squint' in short it meant they were taking a measure of you.

_"I'm glad the kid with the lemur has the gun. If that snake is any indicator I think the other kid would be a lot more twitchy."_ Talion said and he couldn't help but agree.

"I'm William and this is Talion." He said gesturing first to himself then to Talion. "And you?"

"Phillip." The kid with the gun said then gestured to his daemon before gesturing to the other kid saying. "Kalanty. And this is Fletcher and Daemyn."

A loud metallic ping sound caught all of their attentions. They couldn't see more then vague shadowy outlines of the dead on the other side of the fence thanks to the plastic in the chain link. But there was obviously far more then the chain link fence could handle. Nearly every section of fence facing the street was bowing inward. The metallic ping had been a part of the middle metal crossbars had given in and bent in sharply. At any moment the top metal bar would give and that section of fence would collapse, and likely cause a domino effect taking out that whole side of the fence.

"We don't have time we have to go now!" He yelled trying not to panic and he rushed over to the Phillip and Fletcher. "Look you don't know me but I promise I don't want to hurt you. If I did I could have I could have kept running and not stop to help you. I promise I'll do everything I can to help you and protect you but you have to trust me, and we have to go now!"

Surprisingly none of them argued not even the obviously twitchy rattle snake daemon Daemyn. He dropped his bat then knelt infront of the two kids and cupped his hands together. He didn't have the time to be surprised that he didn't have to explain anything. As Fletcher immediately came forward put a foot in his hands and grabbed his shoulders for balance, even as his daemon turned into some kind of hawk. He shot up and practically threw Fletcher towards the top of the fence. Fletcher grabbed the top of the fence and quickly scrabbled over it. He knelt back down and did the same for Phillip who had tucked the gun in his pants as his daemon turned into a golden eagle.

Once he was sure Phillip would make it over the fence he scooped up his bat then backed up a few feet. He ran towards the fence he jumped planted his foot against the fence and kicked up letting him grab the top of the fence. He heaved himself over the fence and landed on his feet in the alley both of the kids waiting for him. Fletcher's daemon Daemyn was once again wrapped around his neck as a rattle snake. Phillip had drawn his gun and his daemon were watching the none block end of the alley. And Phillip's daemon had turned into some kind of goat or sheep with two slightly curved horns. Obviously Phillip's daemon wasn't even close to the full grown adult version of the form. But Kalanty was still big enough to use her horns to charge through one or two of the dead at a time easily enough.

"Alright let's get moving I want the two of you to stay right next to me. And Phillip don't shoot your gun unless you have to these things like noise." He said as Talion continued her over watch.

"Not like shooting it before has helped." Phillip said in a calm and cool tone but he was pretty sure he heard a note of bitterness in his voice.

Not entirely sure what was up with the Phillip but he decided to ignore it for now and said as he started jogging down the alley. "That's because you haven't been aiming for their heads kid. Always aim for their heads."

Phillip didn't say anything. Infact if it wasn't for the soft sound of Kalanty's hooves, and what he could see through Talion's eyes he wouldn't even know if the two boys were following him. They hadn't gone more than fifteen feet before the rattling of chain link got much louder. Through Talion he saw that roughly a thirty foot section of the fence had collapsed and the dead were pouring into the backyard they'd just left. Luckily the dead just seemed to be wandering no and weren't trying to break through the section of fence they'd climbed over. But he still wasn't going to take any chances he upped their pace a little. They went out on to the street and headed right where there were fewer of the dead.

He lead the way using his bat to knock away or kill all of the dead that got in their way. Talion continued to guide him from above showing him the dead were thinnest. Even moving at a light jog he and the two boys were able to out run the dead and it was a pace both of the boys could keep up with. Their goal was two fold one cover as much ground so they could get the hell out of Macon. And find someplace sturdy enough to stay when it got dark.

But they only managed to make it seven or eight blocks before at least a hundred of the dead spotted them and came pouring out of a grocery store. Having their path suddenly blocked he turned to go back the way they'd come. But the gaps they used to get through the dead had closed as the dead tried to follow them. Being cut off on two sides he quickly chose another side street to go down. In the middle of this side street was a news van blocking most of the road. They'd crossed half the distance, when another twenty dead came out from around both sides of the van. There were only twenty of them but they were so close together that they couldn't risk fighting them.

He and Talion were starting to panic neither of them couldn't see any gaps in the lines of the dead. And he was already having to start fighting some of the dead leading pack from the grocery store. Then Talion saw a car with a Pizza Hut head towards them from the direction of the news van. Now they had a spark of hope even if the car didn't come down their street it could draw the attention of the dead between them and the news van. Even if it only distracted a few of them it could give them the gap they needed to escape this death trap. 

Both he and Talion without realizing it started repeating. "Come on, come on, come on, come on." As they watched the car passed going fast and...nothing...not one not a single one of the dead even noticed.

_"FUCK!"_ Talion screamed both in his head and out loud in equal parts rage and fear.

He would have started cursing too but out of the corner of his eye he saw Phillip aiming his gun right at him. He instinctively ducked as Phillip pulled the trigger, but he heard the bullet hit something and it wasn't him. He spun around just in time to see a dead man wearing what the tatters of a security guard's uniform fall with 9mm hole in it's head. He'd been so focused on the car and the moans of the dead so loud he hadn't noticed the dead seconds away from grabbing him. Shaking his head and focusing back on what he could control.

He charged at the next closes dead an old lady wearing a blood stained apron that read 'Worlds Best Grandmother'. He swung his bat managing to put her down with a single swing and marking the seventh dead he killed since they were trapped. While Phillip fired at another dead wearing a postman's uniform. The first caught the dead in the throat and the second went through it's eye dropping it.

He attack another of the dead getting close to him and the boys even as he reached through his bond with Talion to see through her eyes. He was hoping to get a better view of their situation and find somewhere to hide. Or something high to climb where they could wait for some of the dead to lose interest and hopefully wander off. He was surprised to find that Talion was still focused on the car. And even more surprised to see that it had stopped. The car had stopped five streets down and a rabbit daemon had stuck it's head out the window.

_"The gunshots!"_ Talion yelled in his head. _"They must have stopped because they heard the gunshots!"_

His reaction was immediate. "Phillip! Take out that Firefighter!" He yelled pointing out one of the dead wearing the distinct fire proof pants and helmet firefighters wore. Phillip did as he was told and fire two more shots one missing and the other punching a hole in the firefighter's helmet.

He felt like cheering when he saw the rabbit's head snap in their direction. Talion did cheer by letting out a joyful hunting shriek and yelling in his head. _"They're coming back!"_ As they saw the car's tail lights glow as it headed right for them in reverse.

There was large smile on his face as he slammed his bat into the face of a dead woman, who reminded him of his old algebra teacher.

"Why are you so happy?" Daemyn demanded angerly. While Phillip had only just started firing his gun and Kalanty was standing guard over him. Daemyn had turned into a deer with reddish brown fur. And Fletcher had picked up a three foot piece of a broken wrought iron gate. Because of their age Daemyn's deer form was a yearling so he was still small. And his antlers were short and half formed, with little nobs that would become sharp points if he still used the form as they got older. Even though he'd done most of the fighting and they lacked in size and Daemyn's lack of real antlers. It didn't stop Fletcher and Daemyn working together and killing four of the dead.

He smiled at Daemyn as he finished off the dead woman and said. "Help's coming." His smile widened at the look of shock on Daemyn's face. But he became serious a second later as both his and Talion's mind's started racing a mile a minute as they tried to come up with some kind of plan, which wasn't their strong suit. The car was coming towards them but it wasn't moving much slower in reverse then it had been going forward. It was going to take three to four minutes for the car to reach them. They were in a ten foot gap between the two groups of dead which was getting smaller by the second. All they could really think of was that if they were going to get to the car they would have to go through the tightly packed group of twenty behind them. If and when the car got close enough to get their attention it would spread them out, which would help. But if enough of the leading dead the big group reached them before they were through, game over. By his best guess the closest twelve dead were the greatest risk. If they pushed forward and killed them it would increase the distance between the groups of dead buying them some time.

"Fletcher, Daemyn you two seem to know how to fight. I'm going to need your help. We need to move forward and take out at least the twelve dead closes to us." He said nodding towards the dead.

"What?" Fletcher asked looking genuinely scared.

"Are you trying to get us killed?" Daemyn demanded narrowing his eyes and glaring. "I thought you said help was coming?"

"They are." He said then pointed his bat towards the group of twenty dead. "Their coming from that way. To get to them we have to break through them." He looked Daemyn in the eyes and pointed his bat towards the larger group of dead. "And if they attack us from behind before we break through?"

Daemyn looked at the larger group of dead. Then back at him Daemyn gave him a curt but confident nod before locking eyes with Fletcher. Fletcher didn't seem to have the same confidence as Daemyn but he did tighten his grip on his make shift cub.

He turned to Phillip and simply said. "Move forward as we do but stay behind us, we'll need your bullets when we make a run for it. Save your ammo but watch our backs." Phillip and Kalanty nodded then he turned his attention fully back to the dead. The whole conversation from his smile to now had taken just under a minute. But they didn't have much time to begin with.

(AN: and yes the conversation only lasted a little less than a minute. I said and timed the whole conversation out loud. Only without all of the little details between them actually talking, or pausing to think.)

"We need to be quick." He said and charged three dead who where close together.

The three of them didn't really have any distinguishing features. He used his shoulder pads to knock the first of the dead's arms to the side moving past it. Then he crouched under the arms of the second dead's and jabbed his bat into the back of it's knee. As it's knee buckled he stood and pushed it into the first knocking them both to the ground. Not wanting to give the third the chance to grab him he spun in place swinging his bat. He'd been hoping to hit the dead in the back of the head. But his spin was sloppy and he nearly lost his balance so his bat hit it between the shoulders, and not the back of it's head. But the strike made it stumble forward and the uncoordinated dead tripped over and landed on the first two. Not wasting a second he rushed forward and brought his bat down in two powerful overhead strikes killing the third dead. Then he repeated the process with the second dead but not bothering with the first since it was trapped under the other two. Three down nine to go.

He turned in time to see Fletcher and Daemyn reached a pair of dead a few feet apart from each other with Daemyn in the lead. Daemyn stopped just before a dead in a biker's jacket and with a hop he moved so his rear was facing the dead biker. As soon as the biker was within arms reach Daemyn lifted his hind legs and donkey kicked. He clearly heard the sound of breaking bone as Daemyn's hooves connected with it's face. The dead had actually flown a couple of feet before hitting the ground. Fletcher reached his dead a second or two after Daemyn reached his. Fletcher's dead was a teen missing half it's right arm. Fletcher used that to his advantage, Fletcher dodged to the right of the dead and kicked the back of it's knee. Then in the same movement spun and slammed a roundhouse into it's back knocking it flat. A moment later Fletcher stabbed his iron rod into the base of it's skull.

Both he and Talion were stunned sure they had only taken out one dead a piece in the same time it took him to take out three. But even though Fletcher was showing a lack of confidence. Both his and Daemyn's movements had the smooth flowing quality of something that had been heavily practiced. While he was obviously the better fighter but he was a brawler. What Daemyn and especially Fletcher had done seemed almost...surgical.

Resolving to ask about it later he rushed to the next dead a thin woman wearing surgical scrubs. He swung his bat into her face knocking her flat on her back then crushed her skull with another swing.

 _"William dodge left!"_ Talion screamed in his head.

He immediately jumped two feet to the left. And a dead man with bright blue hair and a silver jogging suit lunged past him from directly behind him. Before he could move to attack a shot rang out and the side of the dead's head exploded as Phillip's bullet tore through it. Seven down five to go he thought then corrected that to eight down four to go. As he looked to see Fletcher and Daemyn tag teamed and bring down a dead that looked like a professional body builder.

He'd been about to run at the next pair of the dead but the squeal of tires stopped him. All six of them looked towards the sound but thanks to the news van only Talion high in the air could see the car. He both heard with his ears and saw with Talion's eyes as whoever was driving the car turned onto their road and hit the gas.

"Fuck!" He cursed eight of the dead would have to do. "Time's up! Head towards the news van now!"

There was less then twenty feet between the two groups of dead now. Which was better then the ten feet there had been moments before but heart was still pounding in his chest. He considered having them stand their ground for a moment since he didn't want to risk reaching the twenty dead before the car could help distract them. But thankfully the car came screeching around the news van. The roaring of the car's engine and the screech of it's tires had drawn a little more than half of the dead towards the car.

He could now see the driver of the car, an asian guy only a few years older than him with a ball cap. Who stopped the car right next to the news van. And immediately started waving at them and yelling. "Come on! Come on! Hurry!"

"Alright push it!" He yelled. "Don't worry about killing them just knock them down and don't let them grab you!" He, Phillip, and Fletcher went to an all out sprint. Kalanty and Daemyn kept pace running slightly ahead of Phillip and Fletcher, he on the other hand that pushed himself forward so he'd reach the dead first.

By the time they reached the dead they had spread out enough that he felt at least some what comfortable trying to push through. He slammed shoulder first into the dead closest to him being almost two hundred pounds and running at full speed, the dead flew back several feet into another knocking them both over. He lost most of his momentum and he didn't the strength or size to repeat the action without the room to get a running start. And he had two dead right on top of him one facing him and the other not, although it was starting to turn around. He swung his bat into the knee of the dead facing him making him fall away from him. Then checking the swing of his bat he swung it up under the jaw of the dead turning towards him breaking it's jaw and knocking flat. He repeated the process with the two dead still directly between him and the car, taking out one's knee and breaking the others jaw.

As he fought his way through the dead he couldn't afford to stop or to look around to make sure Phillip and Fletcher were alright. So Talion did her best to let him see what she did without distracting him. Through her he saw that they were a little behind him with Phillip and Kalanty on his left, and Fletcher and Daemyn on his right. They reached the group of dead a few seconds after he did. Which meant that while he had to worry about attacks from both sides. They only to defend one side and watch were they stepped. He was once again grateful that the dead were pretty slow at climbing to their feet after being knocked down. 

Kalanty lowered her head lowered her head and put on a burst of speed as slammed into the left leg of a dead. The dead's leg shot so far back it's foot nearly touched it's back as it fell. Phillip was right behind her and fired at the next two dead close to them. Even with Phillip running the dead were so close there was no way for him to miss.

Daemyn like Kalanty lowered his head and put on a burst of speed. But because he was so much bigger he swung his head side to side. Hitting two dead in either the chest or the shoulder throwing the dead off balance. Before barreling through them and knocking them over like a pair of bowling pins. And when a dead lunged at Daemyn's flank Fletcher stabbed the dead in the neck with his iron rod. Then Fletcher twisted at the hip using the rod as a lever and using the dead's own momentum against it, making it eat asphalt.

While impressed he was no longer surprised to see them able to defend themselves. The dead had spread out enough that it was no longer like trying to break through a wall. But they had still punched through the group of dead easier than he'd thought. The eight dead who were still standing were focused solely on them again and the larger group was still closing in.

"Come on let's go!" The asian guy yelled again.

Phillip and Fletcher made a beeline for the back door of the car as they went. Daemyn tuning back into a bird of prey to fly next too Fletcher. And Kalanty turning back into a lemur and jumping on to Phillip's arm. Phillip stopped and took down the two dead closest to them as Fletcher yanked the door open and climbed in, before climbing in himself and slamming the door.

As they did that he rolled across the hood of the car before running to the passenger side door and yanking the door open. He jumped in and Talion flew in behind him landing on the dashboard. His door wasn't even fully closed when the tires squealed as the asian guy stomped on the gas. They'd gotten away, it had been close but they got away. He leaned back in his seat for a moment catching his breath. Then he looked at the back seat to make sure Phillip, Kalanty, Fletcher, and Daemyn were alright. Like him they were out of breath and seemed a little shaken but otherwise seemed just fine.

Only then did he and Talion turn their attention to the asian guy. "Thanks for the save back there man."

"No problem." The asian guy said with a nod, then added. "I'm Glenn by the way and this is Glacia."

He quickly have Glenn and Glacia all their names. Then Glacia asked. "How the hell did you get in that mess? And why didn't you just go through those geeks? You seemed to get through them easily enough."

Drawing their attention he and Talion actually focused on Glacia instead of a quick glance. And they realized Glacia wasn't just a rabbit she was a jackalope with a pair of small three point antlers on her head. They had no idea how they missed that but they did. So Talion simply said. "You might not have noticed. But until you distracted some of them the smaller group was packed pretty closely."

"We couldn't have pushed through them then. At least not without someone becoming a human Happy Meal." He added.

Glenn and Glacia both nodded then Daemyn called up from the back seat. "Where are we going?"

"We going back to our group." Glenn answered. "We're set up in a pharmacy near the edge of the city. We'd heard there were a bunch of cops setting up a safe zone. We were trying to find them."

"Did you find them?" Fletcher asked a note of hope in his voice.

There was a moment of silence before Glacia said. "What was left of them." After that they drove in silence.

Hours later

Lee's POV

Kenny's truck was running on fumes. More than once they'd found the main roads packed with abandoned and or crashed cars. They'd managed to squeez through a couple of times. But mostly they'd been forced to double and go around. They'd made good time considering but Kenny's truck while sturdy it wasn't exactly fuel efficient. They had tried to get more gas but luck hadn't been on their side. Every gas station they came across was either burnt down, already drained of gas, or was over run by more walkers then any of them felt comfortable taking on.

They had only entered the outer edge of Macon ten to fifteen minutes ago. They weren't too far from his parents pharmacy but he was starting to doubt that Kenny's truck would make it that far. And as if the truck was reading his mind the engine sputtered and died. The truck coasted another thirty or so yards before coming to a stop. 

"Well...that's as far as she's going." Kenny said looking over at him.

"Then it's far enough." He said doing his best not to sound disappointed as he opened the door and got out.

Officer Mitchell's cruiser was right behind them. Rem stuck her head out if the passenger side window and called out. "Truck out of gas?"

"Yep' she's dead in the water." Kenny called back.

Rem nodded and pulled her head into the cruiser. A moment later the engine turned off and both officer Mitchell and Rem got out of the cruiser. And he turned his attention back to Kenny's truck grabbing his shotgun and slung it over as Lunnesa jumped out of the truck. Before sliding the seat forward letting Clementine, Katjaa, and Duck out of the back seat. He then grabbed his pack from the bed of the truck, handed Clementine hers, and let Kenny grab Lunnesa's pack because of her ribs. He waited for officer Mitchell and Rem to join them. Officer Mitchell was carrying his shotgun and a duffle bag with all of his and Rem's gear in it on his back.

"Alright we're only a couple of blocks from my family's Pharmacy." He said to the group at large.

"And we'll find your family there?" Officer Mitchell asked.

"Not sure. But it's the best place to start." Lunnesa answered.

He looked up at the rapidly darkening sky and added. "Even if their not it's going to be dark soon. The Pharmacy should be safe enough to spend the night there."

No one had any objections so they started walking. As they went he kept his hammer out and officer Mitchell kept his shotgun in a ready position. None of them were on edge but they were being cautious the whole time they'd been in Macon they'd seen all the signs of walkers. Crashed cars, dried pools of blood, and a couple of bodies here and there. But they hadn't seen or heard any walkers, not one. He looked over at Clementine she was talking quietly to Duck with Mari as a baby squirrel perched on the bill of her hat. He felt more at ease seeing the slight bulge Clementine's .22 made her in her front pocket.

It wasn't long before they were walking down the familiar street to the Pharmacy. The street was a mess but as he moved towards the front of the of the Pharmacy. He saw that it looked relatively untouched and just how he remembered it. He stopped for a moment and stared at the two words painted just above the front door, and just below the large red and white 'Pharmacy' sign that topped the building. 'Everett'd Pharmaceuticals' if the stories he was told as a child were correct his grandfather had painted those words himself when the store was first opened. Seeing those words brought back more happy memories from his childhood then he could count. It was a much needed morale booster that made him feel lighter and happier than he had since he found Sasha in bed with the senator.

His moment of happy reminiscing shattered when Lunnesa said. "No." The amount of heartbreak packed into that one word, and that fed back to him through their bond made him spin around his heart jumping into his throat. Lunnesa was already on the move as he turned and his eyes locked on what she'd seen and his heart broke. He saw his brother dead he was half crushed under a fallen telephone pole. To make it worse there was half a dozen bites on his free arm. And he was staring at them with cold dead eyes as he reached for them moaning hungerly.

Lunnesa ran forward and stopped just outside of the reach of the walker that had once been their brother. "No." She said again this time her voice broke as her ears pinned back and she shook her head.

He unconsciously took several steps forward. "God...Bud...just...god."

"Wait. Lee do you know that guy." Kenny asked sounding both slightly concern and confusion.

Lunnesa was choking back sobs as tears darkened her fur. He wasn't doing much better his eyes were burning and there was a lump in his throat. After a moment he managed to force out. "He's my brother. Bud."

He saw Kenny's face fall in shock then screw up in sympathy but didn't say anything which was just fine with him. Clementine came up to him and grabbed his left forearm obviously trying to make him feel better.

No one said anything for a moment as Lunnesa cried. And he tried to work up the nerve to do what he knew he had to do. But then something caught Kenny's attention and he raised his arms and yelled. "Hey there! You friendly!?"

And just like that the street came alive. Dozens of walkers came pouring out of several alleys and buildings both behind and infront of them.

"FUCK!" Kenny yelled jumping back.

"We're trapped!" Katjaa screamed in panic.

He was about to yell for them to get into the Pharmacy but the words died in his throat. Six walker came out of the building that Bud had been pinned against which was right next to them. Officer Mitchell open fire shooting two walkers, and Rem dragged a third down biting it and doing her best to break it's neck. He slammed his hammer into the skulls of two walkers. And the last dropped to the nifty pfft from Clementine's .22 . It didn't take long for them to kill those six but it had been long enough.

There was a scream he spun and saw walkers had closed in on them, and one of them had tackled Duck. But before he could even think to move a guy in football pads and helmet seemed to appear out of nowhere.

The football guy swung a baseball bat in an underhanded swing knocking the walker off of Duck with a loud _PONG_. The football guy the finished off the walker with another swing before he yanked Duck to his feet.

Then there were gunshots that sounded too small to be officer Mitchell's shotgun. He looked towards the sound and saw a woman with a handgun standing just outside of the now open Pharmacy door and security gate.

There was a asian guy standing behind her holding the security gate door who yelled. "RUN!"

They all sprinted for the pharmacy doors with the lady with the gun covering their retreat. The lady followed them inside and he heard the rattling of the security gate slamming shut. The asian guy ran in then he and a chubbier guy slammed the front doors closed.

There was about a second of silence before another woman stepped up and half whispered half yelled, with a lizard daemon on her shoulder. "We can't take risks like this!"

The lady with the gun glared and snapped in the same half whisper half yell, as her robin daemon landed on her shoulder. "And we can't let people die either!"

"When I say 'That door stay shut no matter what!' I fucking mean it!" The second woman responded then added turning her glare on them. "We don't know who these people are! They could be dangerous!"

"Dangerous!?" The guy with the football gear joined, his red tailed hawk resting on one of his shoulder pads as he ripped off his helmet. And it was only then that realized the guy was a teen. "Open your fucking eyes Lilly! If you haven't noticed one of them is a cop! And it's not like the others are covered in biker and gang tats! Or wearing orange jumpsuits!"

The lady named Lilly glared at the teen before looking over at officer Mitchell and Rem. For a fraction of a second Lilly's expression flickered looking uncertain. But then her expression hardened and her glare turned back to the teen. "We have no idea if he's even an actual cop! For all we know they stole the uniform!"

Then Lilly's daemon added scathingly. "And even if he is a cop! Have you never heard of dirty cops before!?"

The reaction from officer Mitchell and Rem was immediate. Officer Mitchell stiffened, his jaw clenched, He glared death at Lilly, and he gripped his shotgun so hard his knuckles went white. Meanwhile Rem's hackles raised, she bared her teeth, and demanded with a growl. "Excuse me!?"

Before Lilly or her daemon could respond a big older man stepped up and said. "I don't give a damn if he is a cop or not! They could've led them right too us!"

The lady with the gun looked between Lilly and the old man and demanded. "Where the hell is your humanity!? They would have died out there!"

The old man sneered and looked right at him before his daemon an old nanny goat said with a sneer of her own. "Then we let 'em."

That ticked him off and made Lunnesa's hackles raised, though she did her best to stay calm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please if you read leave a vote in the comments.

(P.S. Larry will always hate Lee. But what about Lilly? Making her an ally could change a lot of things. Then again she is a world class bitch.)

**Choice 1:** Larry is an asshole and Lilly is being up tight how do you want to handle them?

**A.** Be diplomatic. Lee will try to calm things down and keep it that way. When Larry goes on a rant about Duck 'being bit' Lee won't take a side and instead will try to defuse the situation.

**Choosing his will...** ***** Gain relationship points with Lilly. ***** 9pos/11neg chance of a fight starting if so add 1 too all negative multipliers for this choice. ***** A 12pos/8neg (13/7 with fight) chance that William, Kenny, and officer Mitchell thinking Lee didn't do enough to protect Duck. ***** If they believe Lee didn't do enough a 13pos/7neg (14/6 with fight) chance of losing relationship points with William. ***** A 11pos/9neg (12/8 with fight) chance of losing relationship points with Kenny. ***** And a 10pos/10neg (11/9 with fight) chance of losing relationship points with officer Mitchell.

**B.** Stand your ground. Lee won't pick a fight with Lilly but he sure as hell won't be nice either. When Larry goes on a rant about Duck 'being bit' Lee won't pick a fight with Larry but if push comes to shove Lee will help knock Larry on his ass.

**Choosing this will...** ***** Gain relationship points with William and Kenny. ***** 10pos/10neg chance of a fight starting if so add 1 too all negative multipliers for this choice. ***** A 11pos/9neg (12/8 with fight) of losing relationship points with Lilly. ***** A 10pos/10neg (11/9 with fight) chance of gaining relationship points with officer Mitchell. ***** A 10pos/10neg (11/9 with fight) chance of Lilly being so angry with Lee it will mean a automatic negative outcome with all Lilly based modifiers of 12pos/8neg and above. Or a plus 1 negative multiplier with a modifier of 11pos/9neg and blow. **Note:** This negative effect if activated will be permanent until the end of (S.1 Ep.1)

**C.** The lesser of two evils. Lee will show respect to Lilly. When Larry goes on a rant about Duck 'being bit' Lee won't pick a fight with Larry but if push comes to shove Lee will help knock Larry on his ass.

**Choosing this will and...** ***** Gain relationship points with William and Kenny. ***** 10pos/10neg chance of a fight starting if so add 1 too all negative multipliers for this choice. ***** A 11pos/9neg (12/8 with fight) of gaining/losing relationship points with Lilly. ***** A 10pos/10neg (11/9 with fight) chance of gaining relationship points with officer Mitchell. ***** A 10pos/10neg (11/9 with fight/automatic pos outcome if you gain relationship points) chance of Lilly being so angry with Lee it will mean a automatic negative outcome with all Lilly based modifiers of 12pos/8neg and above. Or a plus 1 negative multiplier with a modifier of 11pos/9neg and blow. **Note:** This negative effect if activated will be permanent until the end of (S.1 Ep.1)

**D.** To hell with it. Lilly's being a bitch and is insulting officer Mitchell. Larry is an asshole who's arguing to kill a kid. Lee has had a bad enough day and he's not going to take their shit.

**Choosing this will...** ***** Gain relationship points with William and Kenny. ***** 11pos/9neg chance of a fight starting if so add 1 too all negative multipliers for this choice. ***** A 11pos/9neg (12/8 with fight) of losing relationship points with Lilly. ***** A 10pos/10neg (11/9 with fight) chance of losing relationship points with officer Mitchell for picking a fight. ***** A 11pos/8neg (12/8 with fight) chance of Lilly being so angry with Lee it will mean a automatic negative outcome with all Lilly based modifiers of 12pos/8neg and above. Or a plus 1 negative multiplier with a modifier of 11pos/9neg and blow. **Note:** This negative effect if activated will be permanent until the end of (S.1 Ep.1)

**Choice 2:** Take the lead when Larry's heart acts up. (consequences for this choice is currently unknown. The instructions given will be the same as in the game either way.)

**A.** Lee take's charge when Larry's heart acts up.

 **B.** Let Kenny take charge like he did in the game.

**Choice 3:** What will Lee do when Glenn gets in trouble.

**A.** Because of his injuries Lee decides it's to risky for him to go to the Motor Inn and someone else goes instead.

**sub option A1:** William goes instead of Lee.

**Choosing this will/add...**

***** 13pos/7neg chance that Carley, Glenn, or William will be injured. Who is injured will be decided by a roll of the dice 1&2 Carley, 3&4 Glenn, 5&6 William. If injured 8pos/12neg chance of that Character being killed.

**sub option A2: O** fficer Mitchell goes instead of Lee.

**Choosing this will/add...**

***** 11pos/9neg chance that Carley, Glenn, or William will be injured. Who is injured will be decided by a roll of the dice 1&2 Carley, 3&4 Glenn, 5&6 officer Mitchell. If injured 12pos/8neg chance of that Character being killed.

**B.** Despite his injuries Lee decides to go to the Motor Inn to help Glenn.

**sub option B1:** Lee goes to the Motor Inn with only Carley. (The outcome will be decided by choices at the Motor Inn)

**sub option B2:** Lee goes to the Motor Inn with Carley and William. (The outcome will be decided by choices at the Motor Inn)

**sub option B3:** Lee goes to the Motor Inn with Carley and officer Mitchell. (The outcome will be decided by choices at the Motor Inn)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Character Relationship system

 **0** :Mortal Enemy, **1** , **2** :Hated, **3** , **4** :Not Trusted, **5** , **6** :Disliked, **7** , **8** :Neutral, **9** , **10** :Liked, **11** , **12** :Trusted, **13** , **14** :Loyal, **15** , **16** :Lover/Family

 **Mortal Enemy:** This character will do anything to hurt or kill you

 **Hated:** This character will actively oppose and/or attack you

 **Not Trusted:** You have proven to be untrustworthy in this characters eye's they won't listen/believe you and are unlikely to back you up

 **Disliked:** This character has an obvious dislike for you and question your motives and reasons but there is still a good chance they'll listen to/help you

 **Neutral:** This character is completely neutral to you

 **Liked:** This character likes you their more likely listen to/help you but might back out if it's too dangerous

 **Trusted:** You have proven trust worthy in this character's eyes they'll believe your words before others and are likely to back you up in dangerous situations

 **Loyal:** You have earned this characters loyalty they are likely to take your side and back you up in almost any situation

 **Lover/Family:** This character sees you as family/a lover (depends if romance option is given/taken) this creates a nearly unbreakable bond between you and this character. This character will follow you through hell and/or go through hell for you.

**Lee's &Lunnesa's Relationship status with:**

**Clementine &Mari:** 12/16 Trusted: Your a stranger and you took their dad's tools. But you promised to stay with them no matter what and have been protecting them from walkers. The gun scares Clementine a little but both she and Mari are happy that she can defend herself.

**Shawn &Sillean:** 14/16 Loyal: You risked your life not once but twice to save them in the less then twenty-four hours. If you ever see them again you can count on them.

**Officer Andre Mitchell &Rem:** 10/16 Neutral: You came clean about your past and have made a number of choices they approve of.

**Hershel &Jessibell:** 12/16 Trusted: You saved their son twice and risked your life to do it. You also made no attempt to hide your past from them. You've more than proven to them that your trust worthy.

**Kenny &Ada:** 10/16 Liked: They don't know if your crazy or brave but you saved their son so your alright in their book.

**Katjaa &Brex:** 10/16 Liked: You saved their son and it makes them far happier that your coming with their family.

**Duck &Mallard:** 10/16 Liked: They think your totally awesome.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Philip Grant **Reader Oc** **Submitted by Shady_elf**

Age: 12

Gender/Race: Male/Russian-American

Daemon's form: a loris, an golden eagle, a mountain goat, and a lemur

Positive traits: always calm, desensitized to traumatic events, well mannered.

Negative traits: Has a problem showing, unrealistic(not naïve, just a bad grasp on reality.), bad with speaking to people and all around awkward. (His daemon is his opposite in nearly every way.)

Skills: Can speak very basic Russian(though he grew up in America so he speaks English well.); Can hold a gun comfortably, that's about it, his brother was in the military so he taught him a few things; He's very good at writing and organizing information.

Description: He has ash-blonde hair and pale skin with piercing blue eyes. He always wears an aviator jacket even when he's burning up. He was born in Russia, but his mother moved him and his older brother to America so she could marry some guy her parents set her up with. His brother joined the military straight out of highschool after being on leave his brother learned that Philip was being abused by their mom and step-dad. Philip moved with his brother to Macon Georgia where Philip's brother attempted to go through college at UGA before being called back to the military. Philip was left with his brother's fiancée who didn't care about him and ran when the outbreak started, he was left to wander. He keeps a history journal kind of like Aasim from season 4, except much more organized.

Name: Fletcher Madigan **Reader Oc Submitted by Blitzer99**

Age: 13

Gender and Race: Male Irish

Dæmon’s Name: Daemyn

Dæmon’s Forms: Red Kite, Red Deer, Irish Wolfhound, Stoat, Timber Rattlesnake (generally takes this form when annoyed, angry or threatened)

Fletcher’s Positive Traits: Loyal (It isn’t easily earned but once it is, he will be your most steadfast comrades and friend), Empathetic (Is easily able to imagine himself in another’s shoes and see from their point of view), Focused (Partially due to his Asperger Syndrome)

Fletcher’s Negative Traits: Has difficulty understanding social cues and emotion (Asperger Syndrome, while he can easily picture himself in another situation, he has trouble discerning the meaning behind people’s words when spoken and tends to take them at face value. Things like jokes or hidden meanings are difficult for him to get the first time he hears them), Painfully Shy (Asperger and backstory reasons for this), Over Emotional.

Daemyn’s Positive Traits: Protective (of both Fletcher and those Fletcher cares for), Analytical (Studies situations and people closely for later use), Calm (Despite however he sounds on the outside, he is very capable at keeping his head on straight in tough situations).

Daeymn’s Negative Traits: Untrusting (A defense developed to protect him and Fletcher from being manipulated), Blunt (No filter whatsoever, swears like a sailor and has no issues telling you what an idiot you are), Grudge (Small things can be forgiven, but betrayal is a crime and Daemyn will not forgive).

Skills: Human and Dæmon self defense (took classes that taught both Fletcher and Daemyn to fight), Artist (Drawing), Speaks fluent Irish (Gaelige is the proper name) and English (though with an accent).  
Physical Description: Fletcher has dark auburn hair and mostly they’re brownish with tinges or green eyes. His cheeks and arms are dusted with freckles. His only unique item is a silver necklace with a Celtic knot encircled by a dragon, given to him by his father.

Background: Fletcher was born and lived in Ireland for the first 10 years of his life, loved and cared for by his parents. He was cherished as they had difficulties carrying a child to full term, and it didn’t matter to them that he had a male Dæmon or a disability. Fletcher has Asperger Syndrome but is very high functioning, having grown out of or learn to manage many of his symptoms with his parents help. The ones that are still prominent are difficulties understanding social cues, often taking words at face value, difficulties maintaining eye contact and a laser like focus on certain subjects of interest such as fantasy novels or films (though he’s managed to train himself to dedicate that focus to other, more useful topics for periods of time). He’s also developed a habit of fiddling with his necklace for comfort, which was given to him by his father on his 11th birthday just before moving to Georgia to be closer to his mothers sister (she moved there sometime before Fletchers birth). Unfortunately, a terrible car crash took both of Fletchers parents from him. They had been going out to dinner with his aunt when a truck lost control at the lights and crashed into them. His aunt who is a SWAT officer for the Macon Police Department. Received relatively minor injuries and with Fletcher's parents gone she got custody of him. While at school some of the children found him an easy target for bullying, especially due to how easy he was to manipulate. They’d frequently put him into embarrassing situations for their pleasure, and when Fletcher finally became wise to this, they turned to more physical forms of bullying. This has made Fletcher painfully shy, and Daeymn aggressive and untrusting. Thankfully their aunt enrolled them in an after school self defense program, specifically dedicated to teaching both humans and dæmons to defend themselves (a frequent issue was the bullies dæmons changing into larger or tougher forms and ganging up on Daemyn). Now Fletcher is usually left to his own devices, either reading a book or sketching in a notepad. That is, until the outbreak...

Name: William **Reader Oc Submitted by TheDarkPokeMaster**

Age: 18

Gender & Race: Male American

Daemon's name: Talion

Daemon's form's Hawk

Positive traits: Good with kids as he is an older brother. Always puts the group first. has a sense of humor  
His Daemon wants to look on ahead when asked, tells jokes. keeps calm

Negative traits: Can lose his temper at times, but not with kids hence why he is good with kids. Doesn't trust strangers or people who abandon kids. Realist and pessimist, he knows that there will never be a cure, and their life will be hell,

His Daemon, however, flirts with the ladies, (Well not Lilly) Can come off as rude at times but means well depends. also doesn't trust people and tells new people to get lost.

Skills: Good in hand to hand fights, can use a bow and arrows very well. playing the guitar.

Description: William has dark brown hair, and blue his he is of average height, he is looking for his sister, none other than Violet, but knows getting to the school will be hard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you have ideas for OCs and you want me to hold off using them until we get to season 2 or later. That's fine by all means submit them, just specify which season you want me to wait and use them for. And if you want to wait that's fine because I'll be accepting new OC submission during the first episode of each season. This means I'll be accepting OC submissions for this season until the pharmacy is overrun and the group moves into the Motor Inn. And then submissions will open back up when we reach the point of Clementine getting close to meeting the Cabin group. Be warned there is no guarantee that any characters other then Clem, Christa, Kenny, And Lilly will survive season 1.

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Gender & Race:**

**Daemon's name & form(s): **Daemons aren't typically give typical human names like John, Paul, or Becky they're typically given names like Maximums, Lunnesa, Pollen, Mari, Talion things like that. If you don't add a name for your character's daemon I'll come up with one. (if your character is under the age of 18 and unsettle list the daemons four or five favorite forms)

 **Positive traits:** at least 3 for both the human and their daemon Examples: loyal, always level headed, caring, always has a sense of humor, ect. (please specify which traits belong to the human and which belong to the daemon they can have as many trait in common as you like but daemons _are not_ mirror images of their humans and they _do not_ act exactly the same as their humans they are reflections of that persons soul or inner most personality but they also have their own unique personality)

 **Negative traits:** at least 3 for both the human and their daemon Examples: short tempered, trust issues, drinking problems, doesn't play nice with others, ect. (please specify which traits belong to the human and which belong to the daemon they can have as many trait in common as you like but daemons _are not_ mirror images of their humans and they _do not_ act exactly the same as their humans they are reflections of that persons soul or inner most personality but they also have their own unique personality)

 **Skills no more then 3:** Examples: martial arts training, military training, playing the guitar, singing, ect. **(Don't underestimate the smaller skills and talents some times the most _meaningful_ characters aren't the ones who kick ass like John Wicked or doge bullets like an anime character)**

 **Description:** Give a brief description of the kind of person your character and their daemons are, give their back story where they're from, what their family's like, their former job, and if it applies how and why they got certain personality traits or skills.

Just a heads up there is a chance that I might have to tweak your character slightly for the story if that happens I will inform you and you will still get credit for the character. Here's an example: Let's say you submitted a character who is a school teacher that spent the first few weeks of the out break protecting a school bus full of kids until he was separated from them by a herd of walkers and has been on his own ever since. I might change that to a school teacher who was forcefully drafted into the national guard at the start of the out break to fight the walkers but saw the writing on the wall and deserted first chance he had to protect his student. Or maybe you've submitted a great character that I really want to use but they seem to be a little OP I might balance it out by say they lost an eye or were a kung fu master until they took an arrow to the knee. Hell it might just be a simple as your character being married to somebody else's character. There will be no major rewrites just small changes.


End file.
